Future looks positive for humble spud

Potatoes are thought of as humble and have lost market share to rice and pasta – but with the world food supply in chaos, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) suggests a spud comeback.

These comments coincided with the World Potato Congress in Dublin.

The FAO claimed that, with other crops near production limits, potato growth could double in the next 10 years.

It says they are a low-fat, high-fibre source of healthy carbohydrates and will be an “advantage crop” or winner in the global food security crisis being driven by war in Ukraine and the developing productivity limits on other crops.

Irish president Michael D Higgins, whose role is largely constitutional, has made a surprise entry into the food debate.

He criticised retailers selling food below production cost, claiming this had diminished food value in consumers’ eyes, to the disadvantage of local farmers.

Meanwhile, despite the fallout from the dislocation of global food markets, the EU’s agrifood trade grew strongly in the first two months of the year.

At £24 billion, trade was up 18% in February on the year. Exports rose 11%, but imports increased by a third. This saw a positive balance of trade gap of just over £4bn.

This gap had been falling steadily since the autumn, but February represented a 50%-plus gain on January, suggesting the trend going back in the EU’s favour.

The EU Horizon research programme has been widely used by UK researchers.

But now, in the row with Brussels over the Northern Ireland Protocol, the UK is suggesting it may pull out of the programme in favour of global co-operation. This is despite continuing involvement in Horizon being part of the Brexit deal with the EU.

In agriculture the programme has allowed not only co-operation, but scope to accelerate results by widening programmes across a number of countries and production systems.

UK researchers are well thought of in the EU, but loss of access to Horizon in favour of more commercially driven global research would see that reversed.

The government is using Horizon to put pressure on the EU over the protocol, but in reality the UK would lose out on grounds of research scale alone.

In agriculture there is also an issue of cooperation with the US, which is committed to GM, while the EU is more akin to UK policy.

Horizon would also offer a platform for UKdeveloped gene editing to be expanded.

DIGGING IT: Potatoes are well placed to plug a gap in the world’s food supply.