Analysis: The shortage of new potatoes on shop shelves has a lot to do with bad weather in previous years and too many old spuds in storage
By Shay Phelan, Teagasc
As the schools re-open for the new school year, the consumption of potatoes usually increases as normal routines resume in most households around the country. Even though school dinners are becoming more popular in Ireland, having a home cooked dinner ready for busy students is still popular in Ireland.
People usually associate September with new potatoes and vegetables principally because maincrop potato varieties now start to come readily available. While these are often called "new season" potatoes, these potatoes are, in fact, usually available throughout the summer. Travelling the roads of Ireland from June onwards, you will often see trailers of all shapes and sizes selling new season potatoes and Wexford strawberries.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Countrywide, Brenda Donohue meets some of those buying and selling Wexford strawberries at roadside stalls in Co Wexford
Before refrigerated storeage, there would be a lot of excitement in rural Ireland when the first of the new season potatoes were harvested in June. This would spark debate about the eating quality of the new potatoes. People looked forward to the new potatoes as the quality of the old season potatoes would have deteriorated by early summer, so the quality of the new crop had huge significance. If you had harvested good quality new season potatoes, you knew you could sell them quite easily. However, the advent of all year-round storage means new season potatoes have some lost of its significance.
Potatoes are generally classified in terms of their maturity into three classifications: earlies, second earlies and maincrop. The earlies, varieties such as Premiere and Homeguard, are the first to mature in June, and are then followed in July by the second earlies (British Queen which are usually known as Queens or distinguished by the area they were grown, such as Wexford or Rush Queens etc). The maincrop are normally ready by the end of August just in time for the new school year.
Roosters are the most commonly grown maincrop in Ireland and account for over 50% of all potatoes grown in the Republic of Ireland. Other older varieties such as Kerrs Pink, Golden Wonder and Records are slowly becoming less important for various different reasons. We also have a relatively new classification of potatoes called "baby" or "salad" potatoes. These are small in size (under 50mm) and are usually lower in dry matter than standard potatoes which makes them very convenient to cook.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Today with Claire Byrne, Teagasc potato specialist Shay Phelan and chef Paula McIntyre's guide to the best varieties of potatoes
So, with all these classifications of potatoes, why are there reports that new season potatoes are difficult to find in shops this year? It probably goes back in 2023, which was one of the poorest growing seasons for potatoes in Ireland. This resulted in a shortage of maincrop potatoes on the island, meaning that extra potatoes had to be imported into Ireland to meet the demand. Prices for the 2023 maincrop varieties also increased beyond what had been available before except during the Covid years.
These two factors incentivised Irish growers to concentrate more on planting the maincrop varieties in spring 2024. The early varieties must be planted in early spring, usually February, but February 2024 was very wet so these couldn't be planted. As a result, growers had little choice but to plant extra maincrop. This extra maincrop, about 1,000 ha, resulted in more potatoes going into storage at the end of 2024 which then have to be sold in the spring and early summer of this year.
Talking to growers around the country, this extra crop in store has been difficult to sell as the warm weather throughout the summer has reduced sales and has resulted in an oversupply in the market. As these crops have been in store in some cases for nine or ten months, the priority is to move that old crop at the expense of the new season crop.
From RTÉ Brainstorm, why Irish people go mad for floury spuds
Consumer familiarity is also another potential reason why there are few new season crop on the shop shelves, as more and more customers like to buy varieties such as Rooster that they are familiar with. Quite often, second early varieties such as Queens, (my own personal favourite) cook quite differently as they are higher in dry matter or "floury", as they are often called, and are therefore better off steamed rather than boiled.
When this variety are boiled in water, they can turn into a mess if they are not watched carefully. If consumers have a bad experience cooking them, they will quickly revert to the variety that they are familiar with (eg Rooster). As sales will direct the shop owner when deciding what to stock they generally stick with what is popular among customers so if new season varieties aren’t selling, then they will reduce the shelf space in favour of the more popular varieties.
A simple way to overcome this is for growers or shop owners to put cooking instructions clearly marked on the bag to show younger or new customers how best to cook the different varieties and the different recipes that they can be used for. Bord Bia have numerous recipes on their website which are worth trying out and this may over time result in more demand for different types of potatoes - including new season ones.
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Shay Phelan is a Crops and Potato Crop Specialist at Teagasc
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
