Aitken suggests rethink

AFTER THREE very wet summers it is time for growers to consider some fundamental changes, writes Ewan Pate.

Jim Aitken, senior field manager for potato packer Branston at its Abernethy site, told a seminar at Potatoes in Practice yesterday that they should think about how their fields would cope with wet seasons rather than worrying so much about availability of irrigation.

Coping with excess water had to be at the forefront of their minds, and to that end headlands should not be planted, he suggested.

They cost just as much to plant as the heart of the field but had such significantly higher wastage levels that they were rarely economic.

Smaller drills — say 30inch drills in a 72-inch bed — should be considered, and seed should not be planted nearly as deeply as was now normal practice.

As part of a national business handling more than 400,000 tonnes of potatoes annually and, with Tesco as its major customer, Mr Aitken said he was well aware that growers were in a “risk game” but there were measures they could take to minimise the downside.

“Field selection is absolutely vital and potatoes just shouldn’t be grown more often than one year in six,” he said.

Any tighter a rotation and groundkeepers and the diseases they carried were a serious problem.

Growers renting land should be less afraid to say “no” to landowners when they were offered unsuitable fields which were either too steep or of the wrong soil type.

The top producers were those who had the best control of their costs and over the years the most successful had been those able to supply top-quality potatoes in the April-toAugust window.

Contracts often fitted in and reduced risk, although Mr Aitken expected “a certain amount of squealing” from those tied to a fixed price for this winter. Prices would inevitably be higher this year but the recession had resulted in smaller pack sizes becoming more common and increased volumes sold in ‘value’packs.

It would be difficult to persuade Tesco to push up prices on its own.

“There is a chance that all the retailers will act in unison this time, but remember the influence of these value packs,” Mr Aitken cautioned.

Jim Aitken said it was time to consider fundamental changes.