No more cheap potatoes?

thistledome

TravellingAbuela wrote: »

Try Sainsbury's TTD Vivaldi baking potatoes - they make a lovely jacket spud - but, of course, like all potatoes at the moment they don't come cheap!

I don't have a Sainsbury's. No doubt it will help someone with the same problem though, so thanks for the info.

Thanks also to Suki for reply, but my original question is why aren't they more widely grown? They have a fabulous texture and old-fashioned proper jacket tater flavour. Hoping Spudman will know.

Anyone else now got a mental picture of a guy dressed in a superman-type suit, but for spuds? Or is that just me?

SpudMan

Sorry I haven't come back on this yet. Today hasn't gone as planned. As soon as I've got time to come back with figures for Joe I will do.

As for Cultra I'm afraid very small quantities of it are grown in England due to the variety having very low resistances to G Pallida, Potato Virus YO, and Potato Cyst Nematodes. It also grows in a largely irregular shape and isn't considered appealing to the English customer. It does however make up for some 40% of all table potatoes in Scotland so if you move there you'll find it everywhere .

At the moment however almost every seed breeder out there is fast closing in on a replacement for Cultra due to it's limited appeal outside of Scotland. Expect to see it's availability decline over the coming years.

As for the watery consistency of potatoes it is purely down to the growing season. How a potato cooks and eats is largely down to it's dry matter which unfortunately is one of the first things to be afected during a difficult growing season. Another result of this is you may well notice chips from your local chip shop will start looking darker from now until the end of the season.

Anyone looking for a nice baker would do well to go to their local Tesco and look for a bag of Greenvale Farm Fresh. At the moment these are only available in Tesco (800 stores, not all of them) They are in a paper bag and are Greenvale's answer to Albert Bartlett's Rooster pack. "Jelly" (the variety in this pack) performed incredibly well in difficult conditions this season and as a result will provide you with the best chance of a nice potato.

thistledome

Thanks for the very comprehensive answer, Spudman. I read it with great interest.

I already live in Scotland, but we have only 2 supermarkets in my neck of the woods. No Tesco or Sainsbury for me. Just the Co and Morrisons and the Co only sometimes have Cultra's and Morrisons never (so far).

I don't believe that shoppers in the UK are that bothered about irregularly shaped veg, we care more about flavour but that's just my personal opinion of course. However, I can see the poor resistance to disease would put growers off. Shame.

Thanks again.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

spudman, are you a buyer for a supermakret? or on the 'promote the british potato board'?

or are you some sort of genetic scientist who work on cross bredding etc to get new flavours etc?

Just very interesting.

In your optionion, what would be the best potato to grow in the garden and in tubs? a general 'all purpose' one

As I should imagine alot more people are now going to try and grow more of the basic veg etc

geordie_joe

SpudMan wrote: »

Sorry I haven't come back on this yet. Today hasn't gone as planned. As soon as I've got time to come back with figures for Joe I will do.

Surely it would have taken less time to give the figures I wanted than it took to research to info you did give.

While you are desperately hunting for the figures I wanted, could you also supply proof that supermarkets inflate the price of English potatoes so they can discount the price of imported potatoes?

A reason why they would do this would be nice to.

SpudMan

LOL.

I have had to research nothing. Everything I have told you so far is pretty simple stuff to be honest. I don't need to research something I deal with every day.

To provide you with the figures you would like to see then I either need my desk at work (I didn't get time to go there today) or to sift through endless paperwork. I'm afraid due to your attitude your going to wait for the desk

No I cannot provide proof of pricing structures but it is in place for every fruit and vegetable in every supermarket in the country. Ever heard the word subsidy?

@ COOLTRICKERCHICK

Nope, I'm neither a buyer or a promoter of the potato. My every day business does bring me in contact with buyers, traders, packers, merchants, agronomists, the British Potato Council, Sutton Bridge Crop Research, SASA etc etc. I don't feel it would be sensible for me to explain my exact position in the industry on a forum though.

geordie_joe

SpudMan wrote: »

LOL.

I have had to research nothing. Everything I have told you so far is pretty simple stuff to be honest. I don't need to research something I deal with every day.

So how come your post was just a mish-mash of what is written on other web sites?

SpudMan wrote: »

To provide you with the figures you would like to see then I either need my desk at work (I didn't get time to go there today) or to sift through endless paperwork. I'm afraid due to your attitude your going to wait for the desk

In other words you don't have the info.

SpudMan wrote: »

No I cannot provide proof of pricing structures but it is in place for every fruit and vegetable in every supermarket in the country. Ever heard the word subsidy?

Yes I have heard the word "subsidy", but never applied to imports. You don't need your desk yto tell me why supermarkets would subsidise imports with inflated prices from Uk products.

So go on, tell us why they would do that?

SpudMan

It's quite simple, they don't. I'm afraid your perception of how these pricing structures are derived are obvioulsy wrong.

Let's take the 2 largest suppliers of fresh potatoes in the UK. Branston and Greenvale. They know many months in advance exactly what the supermarkets want to charge for potatoes. They will already know NOW what Tesco (just as an example) want to charge for spuds week on week in 2014.

They will have detailed budgets and projected expenditure figures detailing exactly what they think these potatoes are going to cost to supply to Tesco incorporating both UK crop and Imports. So their pricing strucure for the whole season incorporates this. Tesco do not pay day by day what it has cost it's suppliers to provide them with the product. These deals are in place months in advance.

So let's say Branston have worked out these costs for 2014. They then go to Tesco with these prices and agree a monthly figure. They don't supply spuds cheaper one month and more expensively the next just because imports have come in to play, the price has been averaged over a whole season.

It's quite simple. Tesco want you to be able to buy every potato product 12 months a year. This is not possible with UK crop. They also know you will not be prepared to pay 3 times the cost for particular products for 3 months of a year. Therefor price structures are in place that provide the pre determined return that they desire averaged over 12 months a year. I could tell you exactly to the % what markup Tesco expect in a 12 month period but it would not be prosessional of me to post that here.

I should point out that this is the same for every supermarket bar Morrison's. I have merely used Tesco as an example. Morrison's run a very different strategy which quite frankly damages the entire industry, not just on potatoes but on all fresh produce.

Everything I have said above is the same for all fresh produce. Not just spuds.

As for why my previous posts have looked similar to what you've found via a google search then all I can say is I have been in a senior technical position in this industry for many years. And as I said before I've told you nothing I would consider to be remotely technical.

Just another thing to throw in as I can see from your multi quoted posts you love an argument. Cereals. Mark my words cereal prices in 2014 will increase dramatically. Keep this in your diary and come back to me next year and tell me if I was right (now there's a bit of information I can't have found on a website )



And as you are so desperate for it I will provide you with the figures you desire off the top of my head. Normally I would prefer to provide you with something more acurate.

2012 figures won't be out until next week so let's take 2011.

Total consumption 8.1 million tons.
6.4 million tons of UK crop of which 4.9 into processing or retail.
1.7 million tons of imports of which 1.4 million went into processing or retail.
So 1.5 million tons of UK spuds ended up on shelves along with 300,000 tons of imports.

This season will see a change in this as there simply isn't the UK crop to fulfil the orders for the shelves. So please ignore this year.

You tell me, when in 2011 did you buy an imported white, baker, King Edward, Desiree, or value pack? I can tell if you like. NEVER

The imports you did see where salad and new crop potato lines and Maris Piper to fill the gap between the end of the UK season and the start of the next one.

Hopefully this will keep you happy for now. As I said before I'd have preferred to give you exact figures but you are just too damn excited to see them.


Edit; corrected after the spelling police put me right. I didn't think it was a bad effort after a few hours in the pub

Edwardia

Geordie Joe likes to pick holes in everything even if he knows nowt about it so don't worry on it.

I low carb so I don't eat spuds myself but my husband does and we both went organic in March. So when you have time I have a couple of questions if you don't mind..

1. Are there particular varieties of potato which are grown more organically
2.Are organic potatoes more prone to the potato viruses and diseases

thanks

geordie_joe

SpudMan wrote: »

all I can say is I have been in a senior technical position in this industry for many years.

Senior, honest?

SpudMan wrote: »

Just another thing to throw in as I can see from your multi quoted posts you love an argument. Serials. Mark my words serial prices in 2014 will increase dramatically.

I don't watch serials, so that won't bother me.