Potato Review

26 POTATO REVIEW SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021 COMMERCIAL FOCUS T HE commercialisation of UK growing, domestic processing capacity and support urgently need to be ramped up by the Government in order to develop export opportunities, unless it can promise standards equivalence on food imports within new trade deals, according to the Commercial Farmers Group (CFG). A recent statement from the CFG said it supports liberalised markets in principle, provided they are underpinned by standards equivalence, but says that with promises on equivalence slipping away, now is the time to switch track before it’s too late. The potato sector is typical of the challenges many commodity-led sectors will face against imports, according to Tom Dye, CEO of Albanwise Farming Ltd and Commercial Farmers Group member. The imports battle UK growers need to get competitive, says CFG. Tom says that despite the huge amount of science, management expertise, working capital and climatic risk that is engaged in the production of the UK crop each year, potatoes have become largely commoditised and therefore unable to compete on an uneven playing field. “We have an industry to be proud of, growing high quality, traceable potatoes for all segments of the consumer, but our lack of scale globally, labour & machinery costs and the impact of bureaucracy all add weight to our cost base and make the difference when thrown into an international trade situation,” he said. “We can all look for the added value or niche opportunities to add profitability, but the vast majority of the UK crop needs to be grown as efficiently as possible. This ultimately means that professional growers are looking to further upskill and invest in technological solutions to mitigate the ever- increasing cost base and financial risk in delivering the crop to the end user, particularly in the face of no political support for cross border market equivalence on standards.” Albanwise’ Yorkshire farms grow both seed and ware potatoes and the recent issues around Brexit, coronavirus and the challenging climate have highlighted the need for increased resilience at the grower level in providing affordable and secure domestic food to the UK consumer. Tom said: “The subsidy regime has created a production comfort blanket, something the CFG is keen to move away from, and there are elements of the sector with innovative and effective solutions to improve success and resilience. “However, there is a funding shortage