Great Britain potato production 2010 down 6.1%

The Potato Council’s provisional estimate of Total Production in Great Britain for the 2010 crop year is 5.817 million tons, down 6.1% from 2009. This figure is based on production reported from 316 crops in the Grower Panel, and has confidence limits of ± 3%.

Table 1 and Figure 1 shows the trends for yields and areas from 2000. The current crop has planted area that is 2.6% lower than last year, with 126,887 ha this year versus 130,231 ha in 2009.

However, average yields per hectare (net of crop losses and on farm grading waste) are 45.8 t/ha versus 47.5 t/ha last year, a 3.6% decrease.
 

Growing conditions this season have been variable with a cold wet spring delaying planting of many second early and maincrop varieties. By early May around 88% of the crop had been planted compared with over 90% at the same time in 2009.

Early crop lifting started slightly later but growers cleared ground rapidly due to strong demand. Summer weather was also varied with slightly wetter conditions in the East than the West, although local variations were also reported.

The generally drier growing period resulted in an increase in cases of common scab and reduced tuber size in crops. As a result growers in many cases delayed harvesting, to leave crops to grow on longer than usual, in an attempt to increase bulking rates, which in many cases proved successful.
 The yield and production figures given here for 2010 are based on returns from the Potato Council’s Grower Panel, which comprises 776 sample fields from 299 growers, weighted by variety, region and market sector. Of these, data from 316 crops have so far been returned and validated for inclusion in this analysis. The published production estimate will be updated in January, once data collection has been substantially completed.

Definitions:

Total Production is the total harvested volume of the GB crop measured in metric tonnes. It excludes field leavings and material graded out prior to storage or sale.

The Grower Panel is a stratified random sample of 776 crops from 299 growers from across potatogrowing regions of Great Britain. For each crop, data on gross and net yields, storage, seed use, and marketing are collected.

Confidence limits on yields. From statistical sampling theory, there is a 95% probability that the true population mean yield lies within the range of ± 3% of the estimate given, based on current sample size and variance.

Yields quoted are sold (including earlies) or stored tonnage, and exclude field leavings, outgrades removed on the harvester, and in some cases during grading into on-farm stores.

Average yield is total production divided by total planted area.

Note: Great Britain is not the same as the United Kingdom. United Kingdom = Great Britain + Northern Ireland