End to potato shortage in sight with 2023 harvest on the horizon

This relies on a warm autumn according to Mingbool potato farmer Terry Buckley, but with the summer heat providing a strong growing season so far, Mr Buckley said the crop looked promising.

Growing potatoes for French fries and crisps in the state's South East, Mr Buckley said he put in extra spuds this season in response to the shortage, which he believed was created due to a poor growing season in Tasmania and hailstorms in Victoria, while the fresh potato market had been impacted by the recent floods across river communities in SA and in the eastern states.

In response to the shortage, supermarket giant Coles has put a purchase limit on frozen chips, with a limit of two packs per customer introduced this week, while Woolworths has no planned restrictions for the freezer staple.

"Effectively, Tasmania and Victoria had very wet springs in 2021 which meant they weren't able to get potatoes in the ground as early as they should have and if they're not in before the start of December there's not a lot of point getting them in at all," he said.

"For six months of the year, potatoes that are processed for French fries are coming straight from the ground and sent for processing, while the rest of the year those potatoes come out of storage sheds.

"Because we had less potatoes grown in the eastern states, the stored potatoes were processed much sooner than they normally would be which eventually led to a shortage at the end of 2022."

Although the industry is still relying on storage potatoes at this stage, harvest is nearing and the shortage will soon taper off according to Mr Buckley.

"Potato varieties are harvested at different times through the first half of the year, but we start seeing potatoes head to processors from now really until June," he said.

"Things will start to ramp up in the coming weeks and months so I think the shortage will be behind us, but the fresh potato and crisp market may take a hit."

RELATED:

Mr Buckley said this was due to flooding in the fresh potato regions in addition to freight costs making a crop almost too difficult to go ahead with.

"Fresh market potatoes and processing potatoes are as different as onions and tomatoes these days - they don't cross paths," Mr Buckley said.

"I know people in that side of the industry who have been so badly affected by the floods they've lost almost their whole crop.

"A friend in NSW was hit by flooding and he wasn't able to get in there and harvest almost 2000 tonnes of spuds - that's close to $1.2 million and to my knowledge he lost them all.

"He's not the only one who's had these issues so it's been a real struggle for those growers."

Mr Buckley said SA growers were encouraged by processors to put extra crop in this year to make up the difference which he said could provide some relief for the industry.

"The call for more potatoes came a bit late for a lot of growers, but some of us have managed to get more in the ground this season," he said.

"If I had the space and water allocation, I'd put double the crop in and I know there'd be a market for them.

"Post COVID-19, people are out and about, picking up fish and chips and going out for dinner or entertaining and they're buying more chips, the demand is there, it's just a matter of having the ability to get them in the ground."

Looking ahead to the growing and harvest season, Mr Buckley said Tasmanian growers were facing a similar fate to 2021/2022 with a cool, wet spring impacting the season, but provided current warm weather continued into autumn the nation's crop would meet demand.

"We've had some pretty hot days in the South East this summer and the potatoes have held up well," he said.

"When we have hot weather and wind, that's when the problems start, but the heat doesn't worry them too much so we're doing well this season.

"If we end February with a cold snap we might see more problems because they'll pull up short, but that's something we're just going to have to keep an eye on over summer and hope the weather holds up."