One potato, two potato not too many more

IN a bizarre set of circumstances, a week ago a spring heatwave sparked fires in NSW.
The fires raged all along the NSW coast from the Victorian border all the way up the coast to the Queensland border.
Have you noticed the price of potatoes in the supermarket in the past week?
It is almost through the roof.
IGA fresh food specialist Dom D’Agostino says it is tough in the potato market at the moment.
“I haven’t seen prices this high for a very long time,” he said.
The reason for this is not bushfires threatening life and limb in the state to our north but the floods which preceded them.
While Mirboo North and Thorpdale are well known for producing potatoes, at this time of the year it is planting, not harvesting, season.
To maintain cash flow during the stretch of the year when potatoes aren’t being harvested locally, farmers truck potatoes in from South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland.
In SA and NSW higher than average spring rainfalls have forced farmers to leave their crops in the ground to rot.
In a normal season the huge semi trailors arriving from interstate provide work for packers who clean, grade and pack the potatoes ready for distribution.
Rod Gregg from Mancarella Potatoes in Mirboo North reported that the company’s five packers last week had only four hours work.
The shortage has caused the price to hike in much the same way as cyclone damage to banana plantations a couple of times in recent years sent the price of bananas skyrocketing into the realm of a luxury purchase.
A Thorpdale farmer said he cannot afford the $1700 per tonne being asked for unwashed, ungraded potatoes.
He cannot compete with other larger distributors such as Cummaudo Farms and Mancarello Potatoes.
A four kilogram bag is retailing for $8.99 at the moment and some supermarkets are attempting to price themselves into the market by deception, maintaining the price but reducing the weight to 3.5
Tony Cummuado from Cummaudo Potatoes in Mirboo North said clearly the price is high at the moment but is having little impact on his company.
He said the company has a wide network of growers across NSW, QLD and SA, plans forward estimates carefully and lets growers know of Cummaudo’s requirements.
It also has the ability to store potatoes for a length of time to hedge against any drop offs in interstate supplies.
“At the moment we are lifting potatoes out of the ground on the Atherton Tableland inland from Cairns in Far North Queensland,” Mr Cummaudo said.
“We minimise our exposure to risk by having a spread of growers.”
Cummaudo has had potatoes in the ground since mid August and will begin to harvest in mid December.
The neighboring Thorpdale harvest is timed to begin in mid January.
In the meantime, we can expect the seasonal lowering of prices to begin in a couple of weeks when the Orbost grown potatoes begin to hit the market.
Mr Cummaudo said, “Even at the current price potatoes are still good value considering what you can do with them.”
He said that people should be aware of refrigerating leftover cooked potato to turn the digestible starch into resistant starch which has considerable health benefits.

Empty sheds: Rod Gregg from Mancarella Potatoes in Mirboo North, stood in a deserted farmyard last Wednesday, amongst idle machinery with barely a bag of potatoes in sight anywhere. IGA’s fresh food specialist Dom D’Agostino said he hasn’t seen prices as high as they are now for a very long time.”

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Posted by Sarah Vella on Nov 15 2016. Filed under Rural News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry