The Australian potato industry has been suffering from a short supply recently, but according to reports this week things are about to improve as the crop comes on line. South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales were significantly affected but Queensland got off a bit lighter.
"Queensland was not as badly affected as some other areas were they have significant shortages, but there are always weather issues to deal with," explained Kerri Lamb from Wickham Farms. "We are farmers, we just persevere. We are growers so we have control over our supply chain, we can supply our customers although we don't have excess stock."
Wickham Farms grows in different locations across Queensland for the Queensland market. The company grows about 6000 tons for Coles supermarkets and also supply fresh prepared potatoes for caterers, food service and food manufacturers at their own facility close to the packhouse. They use the potatoes that do not reach the size specs for supermarkets and also grow specifically for the fresh cut market.
"The fresh prepared market has been growing quickly in the last few years and now we grow varieties specifically for this market. It is more economical for businesses to buy pre-prepared potatoes especially if they are using consistently large volumes," according to Kerri.
"We grow table varieties which are all brushed, we have nice heavy volcanic red soil
which suits our main varieties Sebago and Creme Royal. There are some new varieties coming along in the potato industry, these are for various uses, but we tend to stick to the Sebago which is an old variety but it suits our purposes well as being a good all rounder," said Kerri.
Wickham Farms do not export any potatoes as the export markets mostly focuses on washed potatoes and that is not something which they do. "There is also not not alot of stock around for export, especially this year," explains Kerri. "The potato is a low value staple commodity in most countries so there is no big gain to made by exporting it."
Recently there has been media coverage that potatoes are not healthy or convenient for today's modern families, but most people eat potatoes and expect them to be on the shelves in every supermarket. According to Kerri potatoes are healthy and nutritious, it just depends on how you cook them.
She goes on to say that people are also moving to sweet potatoes as a healthier option, but even though Wickham Farms are growing them it is impossible to keep up with demand as the sweet potato can't be grown everywhere in Queensland.
