FAMILY supplier Albert Bartlett has tasked its agronomy team with finding a more resilient variety to replace customer favourite Maris Piper, after seeing the variety's prices rise dramatically at the start of the year.
With floods and droughts plaguing British potato production over the past six years, and dwindling margins exacerbated by higher energy and fertiliser prices, it's become less financially viable to supply Maris Piper, the group's Procurement Director, Paddy Graham-Jones, revealed in a recent interview with the Liverpool Echo. Furthermore, previously-unwashed sales have now been replaced with washed, leading to larger volumes of water being needed for skin cleaning prior to packing.
He said: "he financial loss of producing a crop of Maris Piper that does not make washed pre-pack grade, can be the difference between profit and loss for a grower."
Albert Bartlett, which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year and whose headquarters are in Airdrie, Scotland, has tasked its agronomy team with developing an alternative variety better suited to the current climate.
Paddy told the Echo: "Our agronomy team is working with our retail customers to try and develop alternative varieties that still offer customers great taste, but are easier to grow, require less fertiliser and water, and cope better with the climatic extremes that occur on a more regular basis than they did 20 years ago."
The price of a Maris Piper 2kg bag at Sainsbury's is believed to have risen by around 22.2%, from £1.35 to £1.65, between January 8th and February 12th, based on analysis of Assosia data. Tesco also saw a rise of 21.3% in the same period while the price increased 10% on average across Lidl, Waitrose, Aldi, Tesco and Sainsbury's.
Source: Liverpool Echo
