Australia ‘very likely’ to face potato shortage in coming months

It’s “very likely” Australia will face a potato shortage in coming months, the vice-president of horticulture at the Victorian Farmers’ Federation has warned.

Kathryn Myers from the Victorian Farmers’ Federation says recent wet weather means farmers haven’t been able to plant potato crops.

“It’s just not been possible to get tractors on the ground to work up our paddocks to put potatoes in,” she told Neil Mitchell.

“It’s very likely we’ll see a shortage of Australian Crispin and hot chip potatoes,” Ms Myers warned.

And that comes on top of existing shortages from last season.

“We had a very severe storm back in January in the central highlands potato growing region where a really nasty, very isolated hail storm really damaged crops, so there certainly were shortages going through the Ballarat factory,” Ms Myers said.

Importing potatoes may not be an option either, with the dry summer in Europe meaning there may not be surplus there.

Ms Myers says stone fruit, citrus, apples, pears, strawberries, tomatoes and grapes may also be in short supply due to the extremely wet weather.

Press PLAY below to hear which fruit and vegetables are likely to be in short supply