Bad Weather Leaves Ireland With ‘Much Crop Left to be Harvested’

After yet another week of exceptionally rainy weather, the Irish potato crop situation is dire, and hardly much harvesting is happening. Losses have already happened and will probably rise further as the harvest progresses.

“Met Eireann data shows many stations have already exceeded the average annual total rainfall and others close to it. Now that we are in November, we are in extremely difficult territory with this much crop left to be harvested. The heavy rain has washed most of the clay off the top of the drills which leaves the crop more prone to frost damage. A few hard frosts at this point will wipe out entire crops,” according to the latest IFA potato report.

In the U.K. more rain has made soils extremely wet again and there are growing concerns that some of the potato crop will not be lifted. From the Midlands northwards there are still a few growers with over 200 hectares to lift, including those who had planned ex-field lifting of late varieties for processing.