Potato growers have been told they are massively underestimating the economic significance of their sector which could be as high as £4.5 billion rather than the commonly-used estimate of £765 million.
SRUC senior agricultural economist Steven Thomson told the SAC Association of Potato Producers (SACAP) conference in Dundee that underselling the industry afforded it less political imperative and could result in the sector missing out on vital government support.
“Farmers need to understand the importance of the whole chain rather than just the farm side otherwise there is no political pressure to intervene and support the sector to produce disease-resistant varieties or change practices,” he said.
“By contrast the Scottish beef sector output is worth £950m but they tell the Scottish Government they’re worth £3bn because they’re looking at the whole sector, and that just doesn’t happen with potatoes.”
Mr Thomson emphasised the economic impact of the sector went far beyond the farm gate, and the usual estimate of the value of potatoes across the UK failed to take into account all the people working in processing and the upstream and downstream values.
“It excludes the money in the supply chain that you spend on fertilisers and tractors, construction and machinery, processing and haulage and all the industries that benefit from that,” he said.
“And it’s no surprise that in Scotland the financial biggest impact is on agriculture itself because ware growers buy seed from growers, and the land for growing potatoes is rented from other farmers.”
Mr Thomson said £1 of potato production equated to £3.77 downstream and added that across the UK, households and the hospitality sector – including fish and chip shops – spent around £4bn on potatoes, around 70% (equating to roughly £3bn) of which are home grown.
“So while the £100m seed potato sector is a small component of the total sales in the potato sector it is underpinning all retail and processing and £3bn of value,” he said.
“My premise is that the £3bn downstream and another £1.5-£2bn upstream means we’re talking about an impact of between £4-£5bn of the true economic worth of the potato sector in the UK.
“Agriculture is a commodity producer and unless we take cognisance of our value to the whole food and drink sector then we undersell our contribution to that story.”
