The Scottish Agricultural Organisation Society has said that it believes the country can continue to boost its seed potato exports in the coming year, even as negotiations continue with the European Commission about allowing Scottish seed potatoes back into the EU market.
Patrick Hughes from the Scottish Agri Export Hub told FreshPlaza, that he hopes to see increased exports to countries such as Jordan and Brazil. “Scotland exported approximately 700 tonnes to Jordan in the 2023/24 season; we are just finalising the figures for the current season,” he explained. “We recently hosted a delegation from the Jordanian Ministry of Agriculture over to Scotland to show them our procedures and hopefully open the market for expansion. We aim to grow the export to Jordan to 10,000 tonnes in the next five years.
“We are also looking at similar inward missions from Brazil and other emerging export markets in the near future to let them see our procedures and grow our export there too.”
According to SAOS, Scotland exported more than 92,000 tonnes of seed potatoes in 2023/24. 60 pent of these went to Egypt, and another ten per cent to Morocco (the second largest market for Scottish seed potatoes). The remainder went to a further 26 countries with volumes varying from thousands of tonnes to a few hundred.
“Since Brexit, the door remains closed for Scottish seed, or seed from protected areas in England exporting to the EU,” added Patrick. “However, we continue to negotiate and we are hoping the change in government may help in getting us access back into Europe. Instead of going to Berlin, we will focus on Potato Europe in September in The Netherlands where we hope to reconnect with the Europeans and let them know that Scotland is open to business once we are allowed back in.
“Before the ban Scotland exported 25,000 tonnes of seed each year to Europe. The last couple of years have been challenging with a dip in profitability for potato growing in general due to high input costs and challenging market conditions, but the outlook has changed this season with lower availability and higher prices leading to optimism within the sector.”
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