UK: British farmers are massively abandoning the cultivation of potatoes

British farmers are starting to move away from growing potatoes, leading to forecasts of higher prices and shortages of potatoes for British consumers, according to East-Fruit, citing inews.co.uk. Potatoes are usually planted in spring and harvested from late August to October. However, many farmers have already made the decision to reduce the amount of land they will allocate to Britain's favorite vegetable this year, and some have decided to ditch the potato altogether. Cedric Porter, managing editor of World Potato Markets, estimates that land used for growing potatoes will decrease by 10% in 2023, which could lead to a 10% reduction in the October crop. This comes in addition to a "historically low" crop in 2022, which Porter said was caused both by farmers planting less crops and a summer drought. He expects that prices could soon rise by more than 10% due to problems. “It's a combination of high costs and not high enough prices for the farmers themselves,” he said, ...