News on Potato Prices from Australia

AUSVEG has reviewed Global Trade Atlas import data to better understand: the changes in the levels of potato imports pre- and post-COVID, as well as
the changes in import levels over the last 12-months as growers have faced significant increases in costs of production.

West-Australian Potato farmers are warning that growers will walk away from the industry as cost pressures make the staple crop unviable in Australia.

A long-awaited price increase has come for the state's McCain potato growers. Grower Beau Gooch said the $33 per tonne increase would help put profitability back in the paddock.

More than 80 potato growers in Tasmania, Australia felt a sense of relief when receiving Simplot's second offer for their processing potatoes, says Nathan Richardson, chairperson of the Tasmanian Farmers & Graziers Association (TFGA) Vegetable Council.

Tasmanian potato growers say Simplot is not paying them enough for their vegetables, as they negotiate a new contract with the vegetable processing giant.

Potato growers near Pemberton in Western Australia have been forced to leave more than a thousand tonnes of potatoes on the ground to rot because of oversupply and crippling low prices.

A Northern Tasmanian farmer has lashed out at McCain over contract potato pricing, as Australian consumer watchdog ACCC begins an investigation into the potato processor.

Heavy rain, particularly in New South Wales (Australia), combined with a cold winter have led to a tight potato supply and high prices.

Australia is experiencing a potato shortage because of flood-effected potato crops in the southern states.

Scottsdale farmers Jerrod and Susan Nichols are preparing to plant their 2016 spring crops, but say processing potatoes for McCain would not be in the mix unless prices lifted.

Frozen French fry maker Simplot Australia has agreed to pay its Tasmanian potato suppliers 5 per cent more, phased in over the next three years.

Western Australia's potato industry will be deregulated in July and the highly restrictive Potato Marketing Corporation (PMC) abolished by the end of the year.

The Premier of Western Australia, Colin Bartlett, reportedly told The West Australian that it was time for rules that dictated the varieties, quantities and price of potatoes grown in Western Australia - and the Potato Marketing Corporation - to go.

Potato farmers in south-east Victoria (Australia) are missing out on profits as potatoes lie in paddocks, waiting for demand to pick up so they can be harvested.

Prices for potato crops grown for Simplot's north-west Tasmanian factory are set to rise by AU$20 a tonne.

Simplot processing potato farmers in Tasmania have accepted a $10 per tonne price cut for crops deliverable in 2014.

Several Tasmanian potato growers whose contracts were cancelled by McCain last year have rejected new contract offers from the company.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has authorised the South East Potato Growers Association and the Victorian Potato Growers Council and their members to collectively bargain with potato buyers.