The chair of the IFA National Potato Committee, Seán Ryan, recently stated that the potato crop harvested this year is ‘the worst in recent memory’ and is quickly becoming a salvage effort because drills are submerged due to recent floods.

“As it stands around 60% of crop remains to be harvested. Sizeable losses have occurred already which are likely to substantially increase as we progress through the harvest. Met Eireann data shows some stations have already exceeded the average annual total rainfall and others close to it. Now that we are in November, we are in extremely difficult territory with this much crop left to be harvested. The heavy rain has washed most of the clay off the top of the drills which leaves the crop more prone to frost damage. A few hard frosts at this point will wipe out entire crops,” Seán Ryan said

Due to extremely late crop planting in the spring due to weather, the 2023 potato season was always going to be a late one. Before the onset of the present weather, crops were slow to mature and at least six weeks behind schedule.

Ryan added that, in 2023, the Irish potato growers were forced to harvest in reverse due to weather conditions.

“Dry fields were harvested first leaving the wetter ground to be harvested now. Very few potatoes have been harvested into stores to date as the market absorbed a lot of crops as they were harvested. With more heavy rain forecast on already saturated ground, it looks like there will be no let-up for growers shortly. Growers will not be able to absorb the financial hit if crops are lost due to weather damage and are going to need to be supported if we want to ensure the medium-term survival of the sector,” Seán Ryan concluded.