McCain: Not enough potatoes for processing in South Africa

South Africa has been hit by a countrywide potato shortage due to adverse climactic conditions which will affect supply, quality and pricing of frozen potato products.

"The continuous adverse weather patterns, particularly the heavy rains early in 2010, resulted in major delays in harvesting,"frozen foods manufacturer, McCain Foods (SA) said in a statement on Monday.

Managing Director Philip Nieman added that there were high defects in the potato crops, including, hollow heart, malformation, high sugars, and size problems.

"The crop was further compromised by a black frost in mid June, and again in mid July which will result in prolonged problems with potatoes that are not fully matured, through to the end of November 2010."

Nieman said the result of these weather conditions was a severe shortage of fresh potatoes that met the company's specifications for processing.

"At the same time, as a result of the drastic shortage in supply, it is expected that the price of fresh potatoes will increase dramatically in the short-term."

Nieman said McCain had taken "every possible measure"to minimise short supply to customers and consumers while at the same time ensuring it maintained quality standards.

"We have already utilised the global McCain network to import frozen potato chips to keep our customers in stock, but unfortunately our fellow farmers in the UK and Europe are also experiencing nature at its worst.

"The current drought in that region has raised concerns over crop quality for the upcoming harvest in mid August, with the consequence that the prices of potatoes on the open market in Europe have skyrocketed,"Nieman added.

He said the company also had a supply network within North America, but these imports would not materialise until the new crop harvest in September.   Update: According to Argenpapa, McCain Foods supplies South Africa now with potato products from Argentina