Scottish seed potato quality could attract lucrative Turkish market

SCOTLAND has this year exported a record tonnage of seed potatoes but the industry does not intend to rest on its success, as this week it has hosted an inward mission of potential buyers from Turkey.

Some 64,000 tonnes of potatoes from the 2009 crop have left Scotland this winter. This is a rise of 4,000 tonnes on the previous year, which was itself a record export tonnage, according to Mark Prentice, head of seed and export of the Potato Council.

Egypt, which has long been considered a major market for Scottish seed, this year took almost half of the total tonnage exported from Scotland in a mixture of both controlled and free market varieties.

Scottish seed potatoes are also very much in demand in Israel. While their overall seed purchases are down, because of concerns over the potential for bringing the bacterial disease dickeya in from mainland Europe, Scottish seed exports increased.

Morocco has featured highly as an export destination for Scottish seed for more than half a century and it continues to take large tonnages, mainly of Desiree.

However, this year there has been a glitch in the trade and there is currently a boat-load of more than 1,000 tonnes of potatoes heading back to this country after being rejected by the authorities.

The reason for the rejection appears to be that they found "scab" on the tubers after they were washed. Normally, potatoes are inspected "as grown" but washing can highlight every skin blemish.

Commenting on the rejection, Prentice said it was proof that while demand was rising so were the challenges and risks.

Buyers were increasingly demanding in the standards they were setting and this was making life more difficult for seed merchants and suppliers.

Prentice was speaking after a week spent showing potential Turkish buyers the health standards and commercial practices of the Scottish industry.

"Turkey could be a massive market for us," he said "They require 450,000 tonnes of seed annually and for that they require 50,000 tonnes of certified seed.

"If we even had a small percentage of that total, it would be good."

The problem is that the Turkish authorities require all samples to be completely free from all the main virus diseases. While Scotland has very high health standards, it is very difficult and potentially very costly to trade on a guarantee of no virus.

Prentice said

that he was exploring another option with the Turkish experts and that was basing sales on laboratory tests in this country which would eliminate any issues of potentially very damaging transport costs from rejected consignments.