Potato stocks start to weigh on the market

At the end of the month 1.19 million tonnes of potatoes were in store, up from 990,000 tonnes on March 31, 2019, and five per cent more than the five-year average.

However, usage between the last estimate at the end of January and the end of March was up 9.3 per cent on the 2019 figure to 940,000 tonnes, which was similar to the five-year average.

AHDB analyst Alex Cook said: “The slightly larger end of March coupled with a drastically reduced forward demand profile points to a prolonged period of over-supply across certain sectors of the potato market for the remainder of the season and possibly into the 2020/21 crop year.”

Despite an increase in fresh potato demand in the early part of the Covid-19 crisis, stocks of pre-pack potatoes were 19 per cent higher than last year at 494,000 tonnes, while stocks of processing potatoes were 27 per cent higher at 417,000 tonnes.