Norway needs to import potatoes for potato chips production

Norway's potato growers have suffered from the heavy rains earlier this summer. "Rain and wind have washed and blown away the earth that covers the potatoes,"Jens Kristian Ulsrud at the Kims Norge potato chip producer at Skreia in the Toten district of Oppland County told Aftenposten last week.

Toten is known as one of the largest potato-growing areas in the country. Ulsrud noted that potatoes exposed to light result in poor quality, while many potato fields have also been flooded and the potatoes are rotten.

His company is going to have to import potatoes to produce their potato chips. "Our suppliers, understandably enough, can't deliver the amounts they're contracted for", Ulsrud said. "They can't even get into their fields to harvest them".

The next two weeks will be decisive for many potato growers in dire need of sunshine and drier conditions. State meteorologists had some good news at last. While more rain was expected on Monday, the sun was due to reappear over most of southern Norway from Tuesday, and stick around for several days.

Source: HZPC Canada / Aftenposten