Potato growers hold emergency talks over risk of ‘retail wipeout’

FARMERS, furious that retailers are taking a 284% mark-up on home grown potatoes, have called an emergency meeting as growers face being forced out of business.

IFA president John Bryan said last night: “The excessive profiteering must end and growers must get fair play. It is not acceptable that retailers drive primary producers into bankruptcy because of a short-term oversupply situation.”

Last night farmers met in the Irish Farm Centre where Mr Bryan spoke on the crisis in the potato sector and said growers are facing wipeout, as retailers and packers pocket up to 80% of the final consumer price and farmers go broke.

“With average farmgate prices at €130 per tonne, and retail prices averaging €500 per tonne, it is clear for anyone to see that the situation is totally inequitable. Farmers need a doubling of the price paid to them to break even, and I am challenging the retail multiple bosses to bring more equity into the situation for growers.”

The IFA said that after a season of over-production in 2010, which resulted in the export of close to 70,000 tonnes of potatoes, potato growers made a conscious business decision to reduce the national planted acreage by up to 13% last year.

“After a favourable growing season and higher than normal yields created a short-term over-supply in the industry, Irish potato production was back by an estimated 60,000 tonnes which would suggest the market is more in balance than in oversupply,” Mr Bryan said.

IFA National Potato chairman Thomas Carpenter said: “Large retail multiples sell up to 80% of fresh potatoes grown in Ireland and, therefore, have significant control in this sector.

“Retailers, as key stakeholders in the food supply chain, have a responsibility to their growers and to the future of the industry in this country. They must act now.”

He said, “It is not acceptable that retailers drive primary producers into bankruptcy because of short-term oversupply.”