Record Breaking Year For Scottish Seed Potatoes

9th June 2012

This year is set to be another record breaker for Scotland's seed potato exports.

With over a month of the season still to go, exports of seed potatoes to non-EU countries have already hit an all-time high of 77,277 tonnes.

And it's a doubly impressive achievement for Scottish exporters and growers as it means they have topped the previous record of 76,615 tonnes, which was achieved in the 2010-11 season.

Rural Affairs Secretary Richard Lochhead, who today spoke at the World Potato Congress in Edinburgh, said:"For generations, potatoes have been a key crop for Scotland and, with Scottish seed potato production worth around £100 million, the same is true today. We have a worldwide reputation for producing high quality seed potatoes and 75 per cent of UK seed potatoes are produced in Scotland.

"These impressive export figures - which show an increase of almost 70 per cent since 2001-02 - reflect the huge amount of hard work put in by our exporters and growers.

"Huge efforts are also being made to maintain Scotland's high-health reputation and I'm pleased that Scottish potatoes remain free from serious diseases such as Dickeya, brown rot and ring rot, although we must remain vigilant.

"With such a solid track record, I'm sure the delegates at the World Potato Congress will be very interested to learn more about potato production in Scotland."

Robert Burns, the Potato Council's Head of Seed and Exports, said:"We have a first class potato industry with a truly global reputation. The unique partnership of Government, Potato Council and our trade members has allowed our industry to flourish and we are now seeing the dividends in the year on year increases in export tonnages "

The latest statistics - Total Income from Farming (TIFF) published in January 2012 - show that Scotland's potato output value had increased to over £209 million, a 26.6 per cent increase from 2010.

Caithness Potatoes Ltd
www.caithnesspotatoes.com/