South African Potato Prices Reached Record Levels for the Year

Potato prices have risen by 77% from a year ago to record-high levels. According to Johnny van der Merwe, general director of AM Trends, July’s top pricing was USD4.34/10kg. The price range for a class 1 large-medium Mondial 10kg bag was between USD4.51 and USD4.78.

Merwe, cited by Farmer's Weekly, did not anticipate prices to drop to the same level as during the same period last year, even though higher volumes are expected to hit the market during the upcoming months, with prices reducing as a result.

The longer load-shedding schedule and the greater input prices are the main causes of the price increase.

Speakers at the Potatoes South Africa (PSA) research conference in Parys, Free State, remarked that high levels of wastage in the potato business were driving up prices and lowering farm profitability, according to the same media source.

15% to 20% of all produced potatoes are lost owing to aesthetic abnormalities, according to Lerika Potgieter, a master's student at the University of Pretoria with an emphasis on consumer sciences. Potatoes have significant economic repercussions for farmers because they are a crop with high input costs.

So that growers can continue to make money, PSA is concentrating on supporting initiatives that will discover alternate uses for these potatoes. In a last-ditch effort to produce high-value protein for the animal feed market, leftover potatoes can be fed to insects. Additional initiatives are looking at possible use for potato peels.

Jannie Basson, a Sandveld potato farmer, criticized the lack of market education about washed potatoes.

“A washed potato is out of its natural environment and shelf life is then drastically reduced, which leads to a higher incidence of waste. If we can better educate consumers to accept unwashed potatoes, we can reduce wastage and give farmers a higher income per hectare without influencing what consumers pay for potatoes,” Basson summed up.