Imports dominate potato market

IMPORTS dominate the processing end of the Irish potato market, Food Minister Noel Treacy told a Teagasc-IFA conference in Kill, Co Kildare, yesterday.

He said most frozen chips and a large proportion of potatoes for the fresh chip market are imports valued at about €35 million per annum.

Meanwhile, some 800 Irish farmers produce about a half million tonnes of potatoes from some 33,000 acres.And the country continues to have the highest per capita consumption of potatoes in the EU.