The leader of the Farmers Union (NFU) has warned that the UK could face a potato shortage following the failure to drench rivers had led to recent mass flooding.
NFU president Minnette Batters said that; “The water has been managed in a disgraceful way.
“Up to 50 per cent of this year’s crop is rotting in the ground because farmers have been unable to harvest”.
She added: “I have never seen so little winter planting in my working lifetime”.
With the UK entirely self-sufficient in fresh potatoes, a shortage can mean rises in costs and it disappearing in supermarkets.
Furthermore, a shortage of seeds for spring planting could mean that the shortage could last well into next year.
Added to flooding issues, cold weather and poor lighting in sourthern Europe is said to have created the ‘perfect storm’ of growing condititions.