Irish Food Board (Bord Bia), the Agriculture and Food Development Authority (Teagasc), the Irish Farmers Association (IFA), and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine are joining forces to increase the volume of home-grown potatoes sold in Irish chip shops.
Meadowfresh Foods based in Tallow in Co Waterford and O’Shea Farms/Iverk Produce based in Piltown in Co Kilkenny have joined forces to become the country’s first dedicated fresh chipping potato packer and distributor, according to Offaly Independent.
Over the past two years, the potato packer and the distributor engaged with Bord Bia, Teagasc, and the IFA to support the ‘chipping potato’ project and proceeded to grow specific crops for the Irish chip shop channel.
Opening a new distribution center as well as visiting a new purpose-built storage facility, Offaly’s Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Senator Pippa Hackett, declared that a storage facility that maintains the correct sugar and starch levels in potatoes, as well as keeping them fresh beyond the winter period, is ‘absolutely key’ to producing the quality that is needed in good chipping potatoes.
“So the development of such a facility, along with the official opening today of Ireland’s first dedicated potato packer and distributor focusing on the exclusive growing of potatoes for chipping, is a real opportunity for Irish growers to supply home-grown potatoes for the Irish chip shop market. Growing chipping potatoes is a specialist operation, and the market for them is valued at approximately EUR20m per year. I think the Irish consumer, given the choice, will really appreciate businesses that support local growers. This is a welcome development, which will shorten the supply chain and bring plant biosecurity benefits, making it a significant step forward for the sector. I would like to congratulate all involved and I look forward to seeing how the initiative progresses over the coming years.” Hackett added.
Even though Ireland is being known as a nation famous for potatoes and growing circa 300,000 tons per year for domestic consumption, it also imports 80,000 tons, or EUR45m worth of product per year, with 64,000 (EUR33m) tons coming from the UK, according to the Central Statistics Office (2019). Most of these fresh potato imports are used by chip shop owners. There are currently over 530 independent chip shops in Ireland.
Two years ago, as part of the ‘chipping potato’ project, Bord Bia undertook consumer and trade research to understand both the Irish consumer and independent chip shop owner’s perspective.
The research revealed that over 66% of Irish consumers (2 in 3) incorrectly assume that the potatoes used to make the majority of chipper chips come from Ireland.
