From climate volatility and freight bottlenecks to packaging shortages and contract instability, the past few years have made one thing painfully clear: the potato supply chain is more fragile than it looks. What was once considered stable and seasonal is now exposed to the same global pressures reshaping all agri-food logistics. For processors, this means moving beyond just-in-time systems and price-based procurement models and building a supply chain that is as flexible as it is intelligent.

Potatoes may be a hardy crop, but the industrial systems around them are anything but. Input costs—fertilizer, energy, packaging, water—have become volatile. Storage infrastructure is under pressure to deliver year-round throughput from seasonal harvests. Labor shortages disrupt grading, peeling and packing operations. And processors operating on thin margins must still guarantee product quality and availability to demanding retailers and foodservice buyers.

The complexity of the potato chain lies in its dual nature: biological at one end, industrial at the other. Seed selection, planting schedules and growing conditions are tied to geography and climate. But customer orders, private label contracts and promotions follow retail and export timelines that don’t care about weather patterns. Any disruption at one point—whether a hailstorm, a missed container shipment, or a supplier default—can ripple down the line.

One area gaining attention is supplier diversification. Many processors are moving away from over-reliance on single farms, packers or materials providers. Multi-sourcing strategies are being used not only to buffer against regional disruptions but also to create competitive tension and increase negotiating flexibility. However, this shift adds logistical complexity, which must be addressed through smarter supply chain visibility and planning tools.

ERP Solutions for the Industry

This is where specialized digital platforms come in. While ERP systems have long been part of large-scale food operations, a new wave of purpose-built solutions is helping processors—both large and mid-sized—track, forecast and adapt more effectively. Three recent implementations show how these tools are making an impact.

One such platform is AgriERP, a cloud-based software developed by iXora Solutions and tailored specifically for agricultural supply chains. Its potato-specific modules cover everything from farm planning and seasonal forecasting to logistics, traceability and multi-tier inventory management. According to the company, AgriERP integrates IoT sensors and real-time analytics to monitor crop progress, quality parameters, cold storage status and outbound shipments, all in one system.

This centralized visibility is vital for processors managing harvest scheduling, grading and delivery across multiple growers and sites. In practice, this allows companies to reallocate incoming loads based on quality or volume shifts, reducing spoilage and improving plant efficiency.

A second example comes from Mitolo Family Farms in South Australia, one of the country’s largest vertically integrated potato and onion processors. With more than 40,000 hectares under cultivation and full in-house packing and distribution capabilities, Mitolo adopted a suite of systems from Radfords Software, including FreshGrow, FreshPack and FreshQuality.

The goal was to unify production data, enhance traceability, and streamline inventory movements across their growing and packing divisions. The Radfords platform enables Mitolo to monitor produce quality at the intake stage, allocate inventory to customer orders based on grading, and analyze packout results in real time. According to a 2024 case study published by Food Processing Australia, the software has allowed Mitolo to move from spreadsheets and paper-based records to a fully integrated, live data environment.

That visibility now extends from field batch records all the way to individual supermarket SKUs—an essential requirement for modern traceability and compliance with export certifications. It also allows faster response times when demand shifts or when quality issues require dynamic re-routing of supply.

The complimentary e-copy of the July / August Issue of Potato Processing International, can be accessed by clicking here.