Potato shortage impacts chips

The chips may be down for potato lovers as the country deals with an apparent nationwide shortage of the popular tuber.

A notice has appeared in some Pak’nSave supermarkets warning customers the store ‘‘will be having trouble stocking potato chips’’ due to a nationwide potato shortage. The notice said the shortage was likely to last until the new year.

Potatoes New Zealand chief executive Chris Claridge said there was a shortage of crisping potatoes.

‘‘Potato crisps use a particular cultivar of potatoes and they predominantly are grown in the Horowhenua, Matamata and Pukekohe areas.

‘‘About 15 per cent of the total crop goes into crisping and we’ve got some shortfalls until the new season crisping potatoes become available to the processors – they should start to get supply around about January [or] February,’’ Claridge said.

Potatoes were grown from Northland to Bluff to ensure yearround supply.

‘‘We’re about 20 per cent behind on planting across the country because of the wet weather,’’ Claridge said.

Potatoes New Zealand was exploring ways to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

‘‘You can do that in a number of ways, which is the breeding of the potatoes, the way the potatoes are planted and stored and you have to just be a little bit more careful about the whole thing,’’ Claridge said.

The availability of potato chips in the lead up to Christmas was dependant on ‘‘the rate at which people eat them’’.

‘‘There may be intermittent shortages as the processors align their supply chains,’’ Claridge said.

Table potatoes short supply.

‘‘There’s a difference in the three different crops – processing potatoes for chips, processing potatoes for crisps and then what we call table potatoes,’’ Claridge said.

Pukekohe Vegetable Growers Association president Brent Wilcox said the wet winter had a double-barrelled effect on growers.

‘‘It’s been a long wet winter, so it has certainly taken its toll on the crops that have been in the ground but planting the new season’s crops has also been held up were also in because it has been so wet.

‘‘I suggest that is going to mean the supply position is going to be quite lean for a few months yet,’’ he said.

Wilcox estimated the loss to growers during the past six months to be in the millions of dollars.

The weather had also taken its toll on growers’ morale, he said.

‘‘It puts the stress on financially but also just trying to get things done has been almost impossible.’’

The country suffered through a similar shortage in 2014.

Potatoes New Zealand reported New Zealanders spent $157 million on potato chips in 2015 – more than $30 per person.

When coupled with the $16m in exports, potato chips made onefifth of the revenue for New Zealand’s potato industry, worth $814m.