Will the spud shortage crippling the mainland reach Tasmania?

Tasmania is not immune to the spud shortage that is happening on the mainland, key figures within the state’s potato industry say. 

The mop-top virus outbreak in Tasmania has been attributed as one of the key reasons behind the issues on the mainland.

But the amount of potatoes on supermarket shelves in Tasmania has remained adequate despite the shortages across the rest of the country.

However, Gawler potato farmer Stuart Applebee said the state was likely to feel the impacts of the spud shortage eventually.

“The whole mop-top issue, which is stopping getting potatoes out of the state at the moment, is probably causing a few issues on the mainland,” Mr Applebee said.

“I think there’s more than ample enough potatoes here in the state at the moment.”

Meanwhile, fellow potato grower and TasFarmers Vegetable Committee chairperson Nathan Richardson said the embargo on spuds leaving the state had worked in Tasmania’s favour in terms of potato supplies for consumers.

“The biggest problem we’ve got currently is that Tasmanian fresh market potato growers haven’t got access to what is currently a well-priced market on the mainland due to the mop-top embargo.”

Mr Richardson said he believed the major supermarkets were partially responsible for the national spud shortage.

“They have, over a long period of time, centralised supply to big growers around the country – whereas before, there were a lot of growers and a lot of suppliers in the market.

“And when you go and lump several hundreds of thousands of tonnes of supply onto one grower and they have a tough year, then that has an automatic impact on the market.

“Before, when there might have been 15 or 20 suppliers in the fresh market, then someone might have always been able to pick up the slack.”

The management of the mop-top virus in the state has been transferred from Biosecurity Tasmania to the potato industry.

Mr Richardson said that, alongside the virus being deemed endemic, was causing unease among spud farmers.

“We’re neither happy nor sad about that.

“The farmers really want some answers about how mop-top got here and what steps Biosecurity Tasmania has taken in ensuring that another virus doesn’t get in.”

Mr Applebee said the potato industry was still on high alert regarding mop-top.

“We are trying pretty hard not to spread dirt and things like that around the place with everything we are doing.

“In turn, that is probably costing us because of all the work the contractors have to do to clean down machinery and equipment.”

With the wet weather that had impacted parts of the state recently - such as the North West, where Mr Applebee was based – some potato farmers were still in the middle of planting spuds.

“We’re going to be delayed even further by the look of the forecast in the next week,” he said.

“I probably won’t finish planting until the end of November.”