Scottish seed potato exports to Egypt have soared this season, reported Fresh Plaza.

Yesterday, Mark Prentice, head of seed and exports with the Potato Council confirmed that exports have ended up at 39,961 tonnes, almost double the export figure of five years ago and almost 10,000 tonnes above last year's total.

The new record figures were achieved despite the harsh weather in December which brought delivery problems that were only solved with the Scottish Government negotiating an extension to the normal deadline delivery date.

The rapid expansion in the Egyptian market has been achieved after a great deal of work linking in with their seed multiplication programmes which in turn fuel their ware markets, some of the produce of which comes back into the European Union.

The Egyptian figures are helping Scotland to push their overall seed potato exports to new levels with 71,161 tonnes have left these shores by the end of February. This is already above the total for last year which stood at 69,003 tonnes and Prentice pointed out the February figures do not include seed buying countries such as Russia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia who normally trade later in the season. Neither does it include export tonnages to EU countries as these statistics are not picked up until the end of the year.