THE WORLD POTATO Congress, which is being held in Ireland this year, will hear that the sector needs to better promote itself, particularly among younger age groups, as sales have dipped after a surge during Covid lockdowns.

Ross Keogh, director of Keogh’s Farm – which many readers will know for their crisps – will delver a presentation to up to 1,000 delegates at the congress on Tuesday, focusing on what lies ahead for the potato and what the sector needs to do to ensure that its future is secure.

“Sales are down in the fresh potato sector, that needs to be looked at and addressed,” Keogh told The Journal.

“A lot of it is connected to coming out of the Covid restrictions and lockdowns, people are not shopping in the same way.

“During Covid we sold a lot of potatoes, people were at home cooking all of their family meals, now people are out and about more, they don’t want to be in the house cooking as much.

“People who are working at home all day also don’t always want to spend their evenings at home cooking.”

He said sales have returned to 2019 levels, but many in the sector had expanded their operations to meet the increased demand during Covid and had planted their crop based on the 2021 market.

Keogh said everyone in the chain, from the farmers to the packers to the retailers selling the potatoes have extra costs, but the price of potatoes has not gone up in line with inflation.

Brexit has also caused a challenge as farmers can no longer get their supply of seed potatoes – potatoes grown specifically to be planted to grow crops – from Scotland.

“The government is providing funding to growers to look into growing the seed that we’re short of,” Keogh said.

“We’ve had to do that already, but growing seed potatoes requires a little bit more expertise and it needs to be done in certain areas of the country – up in Donegal, for example, there are similar conditions to Scotland.”

What the industry needs, Keogh will tell the congress on Tuesday, is to better promote itself, particularly among younger age groups.

“It’s the number now carbohydrate and we take it for granted,” he said.

“There is a potato promotion that’s now in it’s third year, Bord Bia is fronting that with EU finding and that’s been aimed at people aged 18-34. From data in recent years, compared to older generations they’re not cooking potatoes as much.

“We need to get it out there that the potato is 0% fat, full of nutrition, it’s healthy, it’s good value and it’s versatile. We need to turn that on its head and get them to fall in love with the potato.”

The 11th World Potato Congress will take place from 30 May to 2 June at the RDS in Dublin. The event will feature more than 60 speakers and is set to be attended by up to one thousand delegates from over 60 countries.

Speakers will discuss a broad range of topics, including the impact of the war in Ukraine on the global potato industry, consumer trends in global markets and the role of research in food security and sustainability.