Potato prices could rise by 30%, one of Northern Ireland’s top suppliers has warned. An unprecedented hike in costs — including fertiliser prices, which have almost doubled in a year — looks set to impact on consumers.
Lewis Cunningham, managing director of Wilson’s Country, said all sectors of the agri food industry are facing major increases in their cost base — and even the humble spud is affected.
“Significant hikes across all energy, fuel, growing inputs such as sprays and fertilisers, including land and labour costs, are now in train,” he said. “Some of these factors have been impacting all manufacturing businesses over recent months including our packing, distribution and storage operations.
“With the continued increases coming at us in 2022, unfortunately, we have no option but to pass these increases down the line to our customers.” According to the management team at Wilson’s Country, high costs are likely to be sustained throughout 2022.
Mr Cunningham added: “The reality is that farmers are also facing dramatic increases in the cost of all crop inputs at the present time. “The end result will be a significant increase in the production cost of all potato crops coming out of the ground at harvest time this year.” Mr Cunningham said Northern Ireland “is far from being alone in this regard”.
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It said petrol jumped to 148.02p per litre on Sunday, rising above the previous record high of 147.72p on November 21 last year. Meanwhile, the cost of diesel also increased to a new record high of 151.57p per litre last week. The Consumer Council tracks prices in around 80 local forecourts weekly to get a regional picture of fuel costs. The organisation’s Peter McClenaghan said last week’s prices “weren’t quite as high as the November average”, and that “we haven’t hit that real peak yet”. “I think it’s coming, though,” he added.
He added: “Farmers and growers around the world are being impacted by fast increasing costs of production at the present time. This will have a universally strong impact on international food prices throughout 2022.” Wilson’s Country agronomist Stuart Meredith cited how fertiliser prices have more than doubled over the past 12 months, with no sign of prices easing before planting of the first crops takes place over the coming weeks.
“Supply and demand may actually become an issue through March and April, which may drive further price rises. “As many potato growers rely heavily on annual rental agreements, buying up stocks of fertiliser last autumn wasn’t an option for them as much of the land wasn’t secured at that stage. “Last year it was costing approximately £200-£250 per acre to fertilise a potato crop, depending on different soil analysis: this year we could be looking at somewhere in the region of £500/ac.”
Mr Meredith added that the demand for clean, virgin land has increased within all the agri sectors. He explained: “In turn, this has pushed the price being paid by potato growers for the right land up by approximately £150/ac. Another input that has seen a significant rise in price is fuel. It takes approximately 250L of diesel to produce an acre of potatoes.
“Last year, red diesel was hovering around 50 per litre: at the minute it’s closer to 75p/L.” Mr Meredith said some of the chemistry used in potato production has also experienced huge increases in price over the past few months. “Some products have doubled in price in the space of six months,” he added.
