Potato stocks held by British growers are 24% down on last year at 1.84m tonnes; 13% below the five-year average, according to the latest data from AHDB Potatoes. CPM reports.
Based on volumes in stores in January 2019, stock levels for the 2018/19 season are higher than at the same point in 2012 but only slightly lower than in 2016; making another tight year for the British potato market.
This decline in stocks comes largely on the back of last year’s extreme weather, explains Sara Maslowski, senior analyst at AHDB. “Given the poor growing season in 2018, these figures are hardly surprising, particularly given the contrast with the previous year’s harvest.”
Drawdown figures
Alongside the stock figures, data on ‘drawdown’ (the rate at which stocks are removed from storage) showed that growers moved a large amount of potatoes during December and January, with 1.13m tonnes released from farms during this period.
“The unseasonal weather this winter has meant that some growers struggled with ambient storage due to the higher than usual temperatures,” she adds. “This meant that these stores were cleared earlier than planned.”
The rapid rate of drawdown this year contrasts with slower movement observed between harvest and the end of November last year. This was due to the extended use of the crop from the good growing season in 2017.
For more information on this and previous seasons’ stock levels visit AHDB’s Potato Data Centre.
