We need to ensure spud remains top of the pile

The potato still holds its place as Ireland’s leading carbohydrate — with revenues of over €184m per year, it’s a vegetable we as a nation can be proud of.

Undoubtedly, potatoes have had to put up with a lot more competition and there was the fear that consumers are now purchasing ‘modern’ carbohydrates as a direct replacement to potatoes. However, recent figures contradicts this with rice, noodles and pasta revenues totalling €69m last year.

While sales of fresh potatoes have been trending downwards, having survived the recession, the humble but versatile spud is still a firm favourite in Irish kitchens. There’s no doubt about it, Irish people ‘love’ their spuds. But, we’re not buying bags of spuds like we used to and the plain old spud can be seen as old fashioned.