The future for one of the potato industry’s most valuable resources is currently being debated. The British Potato Council’s Sutton Bridge Experimental Unit (SBEU) is the primary research and development centre working on storage of the potato crop in Great Britain. It has a national and global reputation, built up over 40 years, for bringing the industry research to support cost-effective storage, ensuring markets receive a year-round supply of quality produce.

The finishing touches are just being applied to SBEU’s new five year Business Plan. This has come together over the last six months during which we have sought a wide range of industry, stakeholder and levy-payer views, from both potato and non-potato sectors.

Our Plan identifies opportunities that will arise as Levy Board UK (LBUK) is introduced in 2008. These will help SBEU to work together with other sectors on broader cross-commodity issues, and ensure levy-payers get best value for money from the facilities. The plan will be handed over from BPC to LBUK with the intention of guiding the unit’s course over the coming years to ensure it remains a leader in the field of storage research. So what needs to happen at Sutton Bridge to achieve this?

To stay at the forefront of storage-related research means ensuring the facilities remain cutting-edge. These have been excellent at Sutton Bridge and, over the years, this has delivered reliable results from a whole host of research projects. But, with the newest stores now 15 years old, targeted investment is needed and this is a prudent way to make distinct improvements. In particular there is now a clear need for research into management of stores on a high quality but low input basis, and the facilities will need to be adapted to manage this. This means re-introduction of bulk storage facilities, and provision of chlorpropham residue-free units.

As the emphasis grows on reducing energy use, there’s an increasing focus at Sutton Bridge to find innovative ways to achieve this. With benchmarking software and various other tools to help growers understand storage costs, we’re already on track to drive down energy use in store. Future work will include more research into fan speeds, improving airflows and the role of humidification, for example.

Early identification of skin diseases has been a key recent development and there have been huge advances in PCR-based methods - DNA testing that is now delivering reliable diagnosis of pathogens such as skin spot and black dot. We’ve just touched the tip of the iceberg of what can be achieved here, and work at SBEU will be vital in assessing and validating data. This will deliver cost-effective, reliable tools to growers that can achieve real improvements in quality out of store while reducing the need to rely on chemical controls.

As well as carrying out research to the highest academic standards, we will continue to ensure the results are accessible, usable and useful for growers. We are delighted that feedback to date shows strong and wide-ranging industry support for the proposals to invest in Sutton Bridge and keep it at the forefront of storage-related research.