Caviar and champagne might be out, but the humble potato is reigning supreme in the recession.
Sales of seed-potatoes have sky rocketed and a major distributor predicts demand from gardeners will be up 30 per cent for the coming season.
At Fairfields garden centre in New Plymouth 48kg of early season Nadine and Swift varieties have sold in record time and there are still orders to be filled.
Distributor Clive Dawe of Morton Smith-Dawe of Canterbury said with supermarkets charging high prices for vegetables in an ailing economy, people were starting to grow their own food.
With 43 years experience in potatoes, Mr Dawe said he was well -prepared to cope with a boom in demand, which he predicted would grow by up to 30 per cent.
