Western Potatoes: introducing new varieties requires a long term strategic commitment of farmers

Some Western Australian potato growers feel they are not getting enough support from their marketing body Western Potatoes to help them get new varieties onto the market.

Western Potatoes chairman Ross Taylor responds it takes about five years to get a variety up and running when developing it from scratch.

He says growers need to develop a long-term strategy for supplying new varieties before planting them in the ground.

"What we don't want to do is to do all that work, embrace the retailers, get the consumers eating that variety, and then it stops,"he said.

"What we want is to embrace the growers to say look if you want to bring that variety in, let's get it to a point where the variety can be developed, we go through that process, but we can continue to supply it on a regular basis."