Potatoes
We are growing 70 hectares of salad potatoes, and 90 hectares of main crop potatoes for the 2024/2025 season. The majority of these crops are destined for the major multiples.
Varieties include:
Salad potatoes:- Jester, Alexia, Peter Pan, Levante, Maris Peer, Venezia, and Jacky.
Maincrop potatoes:- Lady Balfour, Valor, Acoustic, Twister, Twinner, Carolus, Cameo, and Alouette.
We have also added a number of red skinned varieties to our portfolio, as well as a selection of processing varieties.
Our focus is on varieties that have a natural resistance to blight. We are always looking to try out new varieties (on a field scale basis) despite the risk of crop failure, which we have experienced on many occasions!
Our supply of loose-skin potatoes starts in mid June with set-skin potatoes available from early August. We also have storage facilities available to extend our supply window through to the spring.
Storage and grading facilities:
One of our most recent investments has been an on site potato store, which has a high humidity system – facilitating year round supply.
After 10 successful years of potato storage, we have recently upgraded our grading system. The DOWNS CropVision is a new generation optical sorter for unwashed potatoes. Fitted with the latest technological innovations, it allows a qualitative sorting of the potatoes at high speed before sorting them. This will help us to manage the significant labour shortages that the food and farming sector is currently experiencing. The system will also allow our customers to select the exact size specification that they require. It will also provide better use of the crop – reducing waste, and increasing efficiency.