The Irish Farmers Association (IFA) says in its weekly potato report that markets and consumption in Ireland have levelled off recently, probably due to a combination of factors such as post pandemic lifestyle and the current inflationary model.
IFA further notes that the dire situation unfolding in Ukraine is putting extreme pressure on the agri industry and decisions to be made regarding 2022 crops. Fertiliser and diesel have reached record high costs in the past week, casting great uncertainty for the sector, IFA says.
The war in the Ukraine has overshadowed European markets this week and although world demand for processed product is at all-time high, there is much less activity in the free-buy physical markets this week. Exports of frozen product to Russia – which have been halted – are reported to account for around 5 to 7% of total frozen product exports (12,000 to 20,000 tonnes of raw potatoes) per month but this could “easily” be taken up by demand from Asia, according to IFA.
The association says plantings are again held up in the U.K. for the fourth consecutive week.
Source: Irish Farmers Association (IFA). Original report here
Photo: Courtesy AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka published by the Irish Examiner here
