The 2013 potato crop harvest is almost completed. There is a small proportion left to lift in some areas of the country. It will be particularly difficult to lift the last few acres on heavy land after the recent rains but most growers are hoping to finish within a few days.

The harvest was delayed because the cold and wet spring resulted in late planting which, in turn, meant a late growing season.  Farmers who had crops still in full growth during late September when they would normally expect them to be senescing, decided to leave them longer to ensure a good yield. This has paid off because the late lifted crops are proving to be better than some of the earlier ones.

The dry summer, with limited rain, has produced average crops in most areas. There are some problems showing with some varieties on some soil types. The lighter land is prone to scab in a dry year and this is prevalent in those areas. Our Wolds land, which has a high stone level in some fields, has produced some mis-shapen tubers. There have been reports of soft rot breakdown in some stores; perhaps the potatoes hadn’t produced a fully set skin when they were harvested? We have also had to reject some loads because of bruising. However, these problems are not unduly prevalent and most of the crops seem to have been of good quality.

Prices fell from the very high levels of the summer months when harvest finally got underway. Since then prices have slowly increased and, recently there has been a more substantial increase. This often happens towards the end of the harvesting period because growers have most of their crop safely in their store and they have no great urgency to start taking them out again. If they have sold a proportion of their crop during the lifting period they will have alleviated any cash-flow issues and can afford to wait to see if the market rises before selling out of store.

Our expectation is that this price rise will continue a little further particularly since there is usually good demand leading up to Christmas. We expect that in the New Year prices will stabilise and are unlikely to change unless there is a long period of very cold weather. Having said all of that, our weather can do strange things so our crystal ball is rather foggy and nothing is ever very clear.

Rob Bannister