Growing potatoes brings 'escalated' risk - farmer

William Gribbon said some farmers had stepped back from growing potatoes because of the costs

The financial risk of producing potatoes has "escalated" due to reliance on weather conditions and growing costs, a farmer has warned.

William Gribbon, who manages Heygate Farms in Swaffham, Norfolk, said farmers were facing increasing costs of fertilisers and chemicals.

Farmland was also left saturated last year with more than 41 inches (104cm) of rainfall recorded locally.

Mr Gribbon said: "A lot of growers last year either reduced their areas or went out of potatoes all together, purely on risk and cost."

He added: "It's costing us more money every year to produce a crop of potatoes and we are reliant on the weather to do that as well.

"We have significant increases in all aspects of growing.

"It all has escalated into a crop with a lot of risk in growing it."

'We feel their pain'

Ryan Willoughby, supply chain manager at Norfolk-based crisps producer Simply Roasted, said that at times the firm bought about 20,000 tonnes of potatoes in a week.

"It looks like its going to be high for a while so unfortunately it looks like we are going to have to take the hit because we need potatoes for crisps so we have to buy," he said.

He said the business was having to find other ways of saving money to "counteract" the cost increase.

"We feel their pain," he added.

"If the yield is not very good and the weather conditions aren't great we understand that they can't provide potatoes at the price they want to either."