Fear of crisp shortage later in year as drought hits potato crop
CRISP manufacturers nationwide could be in danger of running out of potato supplies if the drought continues, one of Ireland’s leading producers has warned.
Tom Keogh, of Keogh’s Crisps, told FarmIreland that while there were still enough 2017 old potato reserves to keep crisp supplies afloat, he said if the hot and dry weather conditions continued for another two weeks, it would make supplies tight later in the year.
“As far as the 2017 crop is concerned, everything is fine and we can use that up until late August. Potatoes that have been planted in April and May are a different story though. They’ve stopped growing because there’s so little moisture in the ground and we can only get water to 10pc of the crop,” he said.
“It’s not looking good. If conditions carry on for the next two weeks, it’ll have a huge impact in late 2018 and will affect the whole country.”
Mr Keogh believes yield will be so low that retailers will raise the price of potatoes and that it will be a struggle to import supplies from the UK as they are also enduring similar weather conditions.
“We’re estimating that yield will be so low that there won’t be enough to supply the market and that there may see an increase in retail prices. We’re not alone, the UK is experiencing the same drought conditions, so I’m not sure where extra supply
would come from for our crisps,” he said.
At present, Keogh’s does not import any of their potatoes from the UK and only import a small percentage of baby potatoes from France.
Mr Keogh feels that the market will have to be managed very carefully if Irish crisp suppliers are to feed the masses.