“We are hoping for a more normal season this year after last season where the very dry summer affected yields and made the potatoes prone to bruising,” says Solanum agronomy director Simon Bowen. The UK potato supplier started planting throughout the UK in February and finished in mid-May, in regions such as Scotland, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Herefordshire and Cornwall. “This spread allows us to be very strong in both early and late crops, and to select the best growing areas for each variety,” explains Bowen.
Supermarket uptake for British new potatoes has increased, larger orders have been placed and potato prices are firm as the market remains short of good supply. However looking at new season volumes, only 700 tonnes have been supplied in comparison to 2,000t this time last year. Planting was late due to the wet winter conditions and continues to be delayed, although the BPC reports a good quality crop, with yields flat at 12.5t per hectare compared to 13t per hectare in 2003, with no problems fore seen for the season.
Solanum will market 40,000t of potatoes this season of which 10,000t will be organic, supplying most varieties including speciality types, such as Kestrel and Red Duke of York. It commenced harvesting Cornish Premiere in the first week of May and at this stage the quality is looking good. Solanum sells the majority of its potatoes in the UK as pre-packed and approximately one quarter are sold loose, and the company is active in promoting potatoes with retail customers as well as holding hot-tasting sessions and point of sale promotions.
Marketing British new potatoes to its customers is a top priority for Tesco, its supplier Branston and its growers. Senior fresh vegetable buying manager at Tesco Roy Maynard communicates daily with Branston account director, Jo Parish, to discuss and plan marketing campaigns, potato varieties and supplies. “Supermarkets are often misunderstood - a good working relationship between supplier and grower is a good recipe for success,” he says. “This is the difference between old-style trading when the buyer dictated to the supplier. Now we talk about marketing themes, growing the business and not just about price.”
Maynard explains that as a customer-led retailer, Tesco aims to market locally grown potatoes, such as Cornish, to local customers, and have joint-link campaigns with Branston and growers to promote the new season. “Branston is supportive of Tesco themes and vice-versa. Tesco has been a main supporter of the Lincolnshire Agricultural Show because we think it important to be accessible to growers and for them to talk to us about our policies, and for us to listen to them. This is quite a unique triangle and was pioneered for the Cornish new potato market.”
Cornish potatoes are the first British available and farmer Mark Rowe, of Pentire Farm in Helston, lifted the first of the season at the end of April, supplying the local Tesco stores on time with the varieties Premiere, Lady Christl and Maris Peer. Throughout May, 300 stores will have Cornish potatoes as the rollout spreads north. Rowe has seen his Tesco crop grow 25 per cent annually over the last few years and this is likely to continue. ”We are being offered more depots from the Branston/Tesco joint venture,” says Rowe. “We are on top of the crop, it is selling and we will be doing Cornish new for most of the summer.” Rowe says he is proud to be the sole supplier of Cornish new to Tesco and enjoys being involved with the marketing. “It reflects on our success and sales keep exceeding our previous season’s figures.” Branston bases a member of staff at the Pentire Farm to help co-ordinate the Cornish campaign.
Maynard explains that Tesco recognised it had a good team in terms of retailer, packer and grower and could deliver to its customers what they wanted. “We have seen a good solid increase in the Cornish potato business and we not only supply Cornish and local south west customers with what they want, but we have also managed to cut back on imports, supply other Tesco stores in other parts of the country and give back the benefits to British agriculture,” says Maynard.
“The success of the Maris Peer came about because a Tesco buyer, grower and supplier sat around and talked about the new potato business and how to improve it. The suggestion put to Tesco was why did we stop supplying in October and move to Italian produce when the Maris Peer variety, if stored properly, maintains its good flavour and can extend the season. We researched the idea, trialed it and moved the marketing into October, then November until we pushed it into February, mindful of maintaining the flavour and the shelf life. And that is a huge success story.”
Selling over 350,000t of potatoes, Tesco’s market share is 26 per cent and Branston provides the retailer with 40 per cent of its volume - 3,000t per week is currently supplied to the supermarkets. “From Branston’s perspective, we didn’t feel so close to the Tesco customer,” says Parish, “but now we know what Tesco’s values are and Roy leaves us to manage the majority of the local campaigns because we know what they want. We get on and do it because we all have confidence in the relationship.” She explains how all parties share information and are prepared for any changes during the season, and are able to plan ahead for market trends. “My role is to bring the retailer closer to the grower by feeding the grower thoughts back to Tesco. We had a good launch this year for Cornish potatoes into the Cornish stores, and we also played a big part in promoting the fresh product,” she continues. “Successful growers are forward thinking and grow for a specific market - gone are the days that they would grow a crop and then tout it round. Now they know where the crop is going, have a customer in mind and also confidence because speculation regarding the crop is removed.”
Both Maynard and Parish are aware of changing market trends and that fresh supply is challenged by consumer trends moving to convenience foods. However, Maynard encourages British potato suppliers to be leaders and look abroad, to take their skills into the new EU10 countries where Tesco already has a presence. “Some 40 per cent of Tesco’s business is overseas and expanding - forward-thinking suppliers and the best growers in the UK could become a Tesco grower or supplier in those countries too.”
Managing director of Higgins Agriculture Ltd believes there are great opportunities available for British potato expertise in the new EU10, as the large potato growing areas have been starved of capital, resources and know-how. “There are big challenges in all those markets for anyone that wants to get into them,” says Higgins. Higgins Agriculture has had a good year so far, and experienced success in increased exports to southern Europe because of the potato supply shortages in Italy, Spain and Portugal. “We have had good opportunities exporting into these markets from the UK and northern Europe. Although we already had customers in these markets, our export volumes have significantly increased and we have secured new relationships which we hope to develop in the future.” The new potatoes exported are primarily French-grown since these varieties are understood in southern Europe. But despite UK varieties being different, the company has exported quite a volume this year. “It involves educating those markets and we have hired a Spaniard to exploit the opportunities in Spain and Portugal - to introduce the British varieties, explain their cooking characteristics and discuss markets they would be ideal for.”
Higgins believes that current prices will remain high and new potato volumes will be no better than 2003. “Europe was very short of potatoes and farmers were confident, marketed crops well and achieved high prices without starving supply. This is likely to carry on into this season - there will be no stock carry over, demand will be there for early potatoes, growers will harvest early to get good prices, and with this year’s weather and what has been planted, it is looking like we will be having an average year in terms of tonnage. It is the middle of May and there is still a lot to be planted, making it difficult to believe we will have a bumper harvest.”
According to Higgins, the new potato sector is facing a few challenges - the fresh produce is decreasing in consumption; imports are eating into market share; prices are high, and the value added sector is growing as opposed to the raw material. Despite these shortcomings, Higgins remains positive about the UK market. “It is a massive market and we need to find opportunities and ways around the challenges - how to improve the supply chain, increase returns to growers through new varieties or how to reduce costs.”
But this Scottish-based supplier is also looking at long-term opportunities and in March, attended the World Potato Conference in China with the BPC. “China is the biggest potato market in the world which makes it interesting in the long run. Currently, 70 million tonnes are grown annually, and this is growing at a fantastic rate,” he explains. “There is a massive opportunity in the market, as well as massive challenges. It will take time and will not be easy to tackle this vast market on our own - it is far away and you have the obvious language and cultural challenges. We joined a consortium of Scottish business involved in all facets of the potato industry and together we are looking at putting together a business plan for that market. The initial plan was to go to China - now the plan is to work out the possibilities in the light of what we found and how to approach the market; either with seed potato or agricultural machinery or with technical expertise transfer - there are many opportunities in China for us in the long term.”
NEW PRODUCTS SHOW THE WAY FOR THE UK POTATO SECTOR
Several UK companies have been developing and upgrading their products for the potato sector.
• Foresite Diagnostics has developed an onsite test to detect blight risk to potato crops and recently launched the Pocket Diagnostic range of kits at the World Potato Congress in China. The kit detects low levels of phtopthora infestans, which is hard to see. Forsite Diagnostic, is a new branch for the UK’s Central Science Laboratory and managing director Chris Danks says: “The key to blight control is early detection. It is perhaps surprising that in such a common disease, even trained agronomists sometimes mistake early symptoms. With this test available, growers could think about establishing their own early warning stations... and removes the guess work from blight risk forecasting.”
• To reduce crop damage during harvest, the Northern Irish company Agriweb has created a rubber harvester web cover. The rubber cover acts as a soft cushion for landing during separation and farmers have been able to continue to harvest throughout the dry season.
• For the washing stage of the crop preparation, the Haith Tickhill Group has developed a washing system for potatoes using a rotary brush polisher consisting of a barrel made up of a series of brush rollers that rotate independently and can vary in speed. The low-maintenance machine has been tested and results showed that the use of the brush polisher after conventional washing improves potato shelf life, pack-out and appearance. The Haith brushing system offers an advantage over conventional barrel washing systems used in crisp and chip processing lines because it removes grit from potato skins and increases the life of blades in the slicing equipment.
• Looking at field irrigation, Wroot Systems has assisted Lincolnshire potato growers with their irrigation needs. The water specialists visited the fields, mapped the water sources and then computer designed an individual drip system to use the least amount of water required for optimum growth. The Wroot irrigation system is radio controlled remotely from one location, and controls valves, pumps, filtration and fertigation.
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