Finding the perfect potato: One man's mission to establish the best spuds to weather climate change

“Potato trials days are important for the future of our industry as growers and buyers can see how new and existing varieties are faring and how the seed companies are responding to climate change, international pressures and customer choice.

“The current drought conditions coupled with increasing costs of production makes this a very worrying time for many. The drought, particularly, is reducing yields dramatically. Potatoes stop growing at 25 degrees, which means they are not putting on size or weight, and with the nights being not far off that temperature they are not getting chance to recover.

“A normal average yield on a main crop variety would be somewhere between 20-25 tonnes per acre, but at the moment and with reducing tuber numbers I think we could end up with 15-18 tonnes per acre and in some extreme cases we could see as low as 6-10 tonnes because crops have just died off.”

Mark said that those charged with coming up with the potato of tomorrow are well under way with establishing varieties that can cope in the UK’s new heat.

“With some of the potato varieties we have currently there is nothing that can be done other than looking after them with bio-stimulants to try to keep the roots healthy and irrigate on an evening.

“Irrigated crops are faring reasonably well and are just a little bit later in bulking up and putting weight on.

“Climate change is with us and seed breeders are responding. They are trying to find varieties of potato that are drought tolerant and new varieties such as Buster and Commando were looking good at the trials. They hadn’t been irrigated but where a lot of the potato varieties can’t stand the heat, they had withstood it quite well.

“Amanda, a chipping variety, has also shown that it can cope with the stress brought about by the heat better than older varieties such Estima that has fallen out of favour.”

While many consumers will perhaps be amazed at the number of potato varieties available, and possibly only able to name King Edwards and possibly Maris Piper, Mark said the potato market is constantly changing.

“One of the top white potato varieties at the moment is Melody, which is a good eating potato that most supermarkets take. Manhattan is another good one and the new variety Tyson looks very promising. These have all dealt with the heat particularly well.

“The King Edward lost a lot of custom last year, their sales dropped off a cliff. The Maris Piper makes up perhaps a third of all potatoes grown because the bigger processors such as McCain’s grow it and like it, although it is a hard variety to grow.

“The red potato market is dominated by the variety Mozart, where it used to be Desiree. Mozart is a good all-rounder as well as being a good yielding variety. The new red varieties that are clearly coming on, judged by the trials day, include Caledonian Rose and Baltic Rose.

Mark said the proof of how important the trials day is to the industry was further embellished by what happened at South Cave last week.

“We had one of the big five supermarkets show a firm interest in taking on a new variety in their supermarket. That’s what happens at trial days.”

Buyers come to look for a variety, that can do everything well from boiled to mashed, jacket or roast, to chipper or crisper.

“We rent land specifically for the trials and seed breeders look after their own plots. Buyers can see the work that is being done with each variety and how it is being conducted. There has recently been a good deal of research into plant spacings and the use of bio-stimulants where no fertiliser has been used.

“Using more bio-stimulants and reducing fertiliser costs may not save a lot in actual short-term monetising, but they may save something on carbon and may also make the crop more sustainable in the long-term.”

Mark said the another cost that has increased significantly is the costs of electricity.

“We keep potatoes in cold storage and that temperature control is down to electricity. We’ve already seen a jump in the cost of electricity by £10-£20 per tonne dependent on electricity supplier. The average store cost last year to the end of that season just a few weeks ago will have been around £40 per tonne. It could now be 50 per cent more expensive.”

With wheat, barley, sugar beet and oilseed rape returns all going up for producers it is likely to create a loss in potato growers next year.

“We had a fantastic day at South Cave even though there was talk of such as drought, but with returns from those other crops all looking enticing I believe we could be in a position where we will lose growers if we don’t get the prices right.

“But it’s certainly not doom and gloom. This is a fantastic industry that I have been involved with all of my working life and the potato has a part to play in all our lives.

“Personally, I still make my own chips out of a fresh potato in a proper chip pan, but I don’t believe the younger generation is really interested in doing that with chips or roast potatoes. That’s what’s a real hot potato!”