More setbacks for Jersey Royals

Plantings of Jersey Royals continued to be disrupted this week, with bouts of heavy rain hindering progress.

A total of 92 per cent of the export crop in the ground, according to Jersey Royal (Potato Marketing) Ltd, and plantings will be completed next week.

The delay comes in spite of reasonable periods of sunshine and warm temperatures.

But volume shipping is still due to start on May 14.

The harvest of the greenhouse crop will be completed this weekend - a week ahead of original forecasts, said Dan Bennett at Jersey Royal (Potato Marketing) Ltd.

He added: “The yields have been well below expectations and we will have to move to outdoor crop far earlier than expected. As a result we risk a similar situation to last year, when we moved too quickly to the outdoor fields before the crop had bulked sufficiently.

“To avoid a repeat of last years issues, we must continue to restrict availability for the next 7-10 days - the forecast is for fine weather which should have a significant effect on the crop, enabling it to bulk up enough to allow us, hopefully, to increase for the following week.”