CityLife

Organic potato boost for shoppers

SHOPPERS throughout Europe are enjoying a greater variety of organic potatoes at more affordable prices, researchers said today.

Several varieties of organic potato, suitable for a range of national palates and cuisine, are adorning supermarket shelves across the continent for the first time.

The study found up to 10 varieties of the vegetable, which are grown without fertilisers and pesticides, are resistant to the deadly fungal disease blight.

Among the newly available organic potato selection are two Scottish varieties, Eve Balfour and Lady Balfour, which are already on sale at UK supermarkets.

One of the Blight-MOP project's main objectives was to encourage more consumers and producers to "go organic" - currently just 4% of shoppers buy organic vegetables.

Shoppers can spend up to twice as much on organic potatoes as on other varieties. Organic farmers do not have powerful chemical fertilisers and pesticides in their armoury, meaning harvests are much smaller and more expensive to produce.

Blight

Organic farmers' main weapons against blight - which caused widespread famine in the UK in the 1840s and is extremely difficult to control - are mineral copper sprays, and even these are not popular with consumers.

The study was led by Professor Carlo Leifert, leader of the Nafferton Ecological Farming Group at Newcastle University.

"Until now it's been hard to find varieties of potato that can be grown organically but can resist blight, and it's taken a lot of investigation to get this far," he said.

"From a European perspective, you can't really find a `one size fits all' solution to the organic problem.

"For instance, a potato that's popular with the Swiss for making dishes such as tartiflette and rosti may not suit what the British consumer wants for baked potato, mash and chips.

"Essentially, the Blight-MOP project has ensured that organic potatoes of the future will be more widely available and of an equal, if not better, quality and closer to the price of potatoes grown using chemicals.

"Hopefully we can then encourage more consumers and farmers alike to take the healthy eating option and go organic."

Patrick Holden, director of the Soil Association, said: "The results from the research are good news for farmers and consumers.

"Organic potato growing can be challenging and we hope that these blight-resistant varieties will enable UK organic farmers to produce more potatoes.

"It is encouraging that the supermarkets are recognising the challenges of growing organic potatoes and have started giving these new varieties a chance on the supermarket shelf."

The results were presented at a conference in the Newcastle hosted jointly by the Soil Association and Newcastle University.