Potato buyers will have to dig deeper
Don’t panic – jersey bennes and other varieties of new season potatoes will still be available for Christmas.
But don’t be surprised if you have to pay extra for your favourite vegetable because wet weather will lead to a supply shortage.
Potatoes for chips will be in reasonable supply but there will be a shortage of crisping spuds.
At risk is the lucrative export market for crisping potatoes to Vietnam, worth about $20 million a year.
Potatoes New Zealand chief executive Chris Claridge said much of the country had so far this year received about 25 per cent more rain than normal.
Especially hard hit were Horowhenua, Matamata and Pukekohe, although the latter’s weather woes were compounded by pressure on land for housing.
Anecdotally, potato supply was about 20 per cent down, but the same land area of 10,000 hectares has been planted as in normal years.
He said there would be pressure on prices, especially if processors had to buy on the spot market.
Claridge said the biggest problem was for crisping potatoes in the North Island, which demanded particular varieties. There was no shortage of crisping potatoes in the South Island.
‘‘What we’re seeing are some losses in the North Island for crops planted in July that come available in December. There’s not so much of a problem in the South Island, main crops are being planted end of this month, for chip processing in February, March and April. Plantings in Canterbury are proceeding according to plan.’’
The woes of the crisping potatoes industry were also related to traditional ways of storing the potatoes in the ground until they were needed for processing. Because of the wet weather they were literally drowning.
Of the 500,000 tonnes of potatoes grown in New Zealand a year, about 50 per cent are for chips, 35 per cent whole potatoes bought in stores, and 15 per cent go into crisps.