Potato shortage exposes further risk for farmers aiming for suitable yields

The wet weather and flooding on the east coast has hurt potato yields, resulting in supermarkets introducing limits on the amount of bags of frozen chips customers can buy, and cafes and fast food restaurants either cutting potato items off of menus, increasing prices of these items, or substituting potatoes with other foods such as sweet potato.

Victorian Farmers Federation horticulture group vice-president and Tourello potato grower Katherine Myers said processors needed to recognise the risk farmers were taking in producing potato crops.

"Potato crops are incredibly expensive to put in and grow, and you need to really have quite high yields to justify their production," Ms Myers said.

"If we continue to see increasingly-volatile weather systems and start to see more crops fail then there's going to be a change in that risk-return calculation for growers.

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"If you go from losing say one crop in 10 to losing two or three crops in 10 due to factors outside of your control, you need to make a lot more money out of those other seven years to get through those poor seasons."

She said while it was likely there would be increases in prices so that "growers can continue taking that risk", she wanted consumers to know that the portion of what was paid at the supermarket going back to the farmer was very small.

"If you go through a McDonald's drive thru and you buy a large chips, only three of those chips in your bucket goes to the farmer, or if you buy a bag of frozen chips at the supermarket that might cost $4-5, the farmer receives around 33 cents," she said.

"Even if we see a significant increase at the farmgate, it's not going to be dramatic on the cost that consumers are paying."

She also called on more sharing of that risk between processing factories and growers.

Ms Myers said many growers will take a "wait and see" approach to this year's harvest, but yields would very likely be down on previous years.

"Farmers have said that they had trouble getting crop in and had more difficulty than normal managing the crop during the cropping season," she said.

"So we're expecting yields to be down in Tassie and the Victorian Central Highlands where we've certainly seen really significant delays."

She also said due to the high cost of potato production, there were some farmers who had significantly reduced the area that they had planted this year.

"Some growers have only planted 50 per cent of the normal area they would plant, so we're expecting the shortages to continue here through this season, certainly until the next European summer and we see whether we can pick up any product out there," she said.

She said there may be some slight relief in the coming months as farmers in parts of SA, northern Victoria and the NSW Riverina start to see the harvest of crops come through with warmer weather, but many would still have a tough growing season unless there was "maximised sun".

A spokesperson for processor McCain did not comment on payments, but acknowledged the planting season had been difficult for potato growers.

"These unprecedented weather conditions have impacted our growers' ability to get crops in the ground early in the season, resulting in reduced growing time and potential yield implications," the spokesperson said.

"This remains a challenging period because there has been a simultaneous increase in demand, however McCain sources and processes potatoes across a wide network and are working diligently with our growers and customers to mitigate any supply impacts where possible."

"However, we are pleased to say that weather conditions are improving and harvesting has begun for many of our growers across Australia and will continue working closely with and supporting them as the industry faces these ongoing challenges."

Coles confirmed purchasing restrictions on frozen potato products would continue after being introduced in mid-December.

"Poor weather in the eastern states has affected supply of some frozen potato products across the industry," a Coles spokesperson said.