By Jasper Raats
In terms of price, potatoes had an exceptionally good April, says David Nel from Grow Fresh Produce Agents in Johannesburg.
Although there were about 10% fewer potatoes on the market than in April last year, the average price was about 25% higher.
Nel attributes this to lower volumes and the traditionally higher demand during Easter weekend and other long weekends this time of year.
The lower volumes are directly related to the extremely wet conditions that occurred in March and April across most of the production areas.
According to Nel, there was yield damage, and farmers in the Eastern Free State confirmed that they won’t achieve the yields they expected for the second half of the harvest. Farmers from the Christiana area in North West also won’t harvest the same tonnage as they did last year.
However, it’s difficult to say now how the heavy rains will affect yields. The full impact will only become clear in a month or two when farmers dig up potatoes that may have been damaged.
Nevertheless, Nel believes that the good prices in April helped compensate for the losses. Especially farmers from Christiana and Vryburg benefited from this. So far, prices this year are holding well and are higher than most people expected.
Volumes are increasing
A change in the volume of supply is being observed. “I see larger quantities of potatoes arriving at the market every night this week. Farmers in the Eastern Free State and Christiana, who until last week could not get into their fields to harvest, can now harvest, and those potatoes are now landing on the market in considerable quantities,” says Nel.
“By the end of May, farmers from the Douglas area will come into full production, and those volumes will also land on the markets, after which the first of Limpopo’s early plantings will contribute to the volumes on the markets in the last two weeks of June.”
Nel therefore foresees that the supply will remain steady for the rest of the season and that prices may fall in the coming week. However, he expects it will still be a good season with prices that can remain at the top of the long-term average or even higher. He doesn’t expect exceptional prices unless there is further impact on harvests. For example, frost in Limpopo could hurt volumes and boost prices.
Prices
A 10kg bag of large potatoes was still selling for between R100 and R110 on the Johannesburg fresh produce market this week. Medium-large potatoes fetched between R90 and R100 per bag, and medium potatoes sold for between R80 and R90 per bag.
Nel expects that prices could fall by about R10 per bag across the board by next week.
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