Reino Unido: Essex potato farmers fear for future as exports are turned away

The county’s growers send about 30,000 tonnes of Essex potatoes, believed to be roughly 90 per cent of their stock, to the Spanish holiday islands every year.

Yet they’ve been left bemused after inspectors in Tenerife started turning away containers in August because of high soil levels – despite the potatoes already passing UK Government tests.

"If Essex lost that market or they keep putting restrictions on it, we will all have to stop farming potatoes," said Chris Philpot, who grows King Edwards, Ambo, Picasso and Elgar on his 250 acres of potato fields at Boyton Hall Farm in Roxwell.

"There is neither rhyme nor reason behind this.

"We’re proud of what we do in Essex. We export good-quality potatoes in a good-quality manner, but they just throw them out when they get there because they feel like it. It’s very frustrating."

Essex farmers have exported to the Canaries, which lie off the Moroccan coast, for more than 30 years.

East of England varieties are prized abroad because they ordinarily do not contain roundworm disease, potato cyst nematode (PCN).

In the Canaries, they cannot grow enough to feed natives and tourists, which is why Essex’s potatoes are so sought-after, and because spuds from neighbouring countries often suffer from PCN.

Batches are being rejected when the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs says the deliveries contain below the maximum two per cent soil consistency legislated by the EU.

Mr Philpot, who says DEFRA claims his exports contain 0.5 per cent soil, has had three-and-a-half containers sent back recently.

But after repackaging them in the UK and sending them to the Canaries for a second time, they were accepted, which he says goes to prove how fickle the regulations are.

He said that if the potatoes were still fit to eat, farmers will try and re-sell them in UK markets, or they are left to rot in the Canaries because it is too costly to bring them back to the UK.The county’s potatoes are worth £150 per tonne and Mr Philpot is concerned he must pick up the £5,000 bill for every 25-tonne container, which must be brought back to UK shores.

"This is critical to our livelihood, it’s the heart of our businesses and between us we probably send out from Essex 50 to 60 containers a week," said Mr Philpot. "They’ve been considered fit for consumption and they have passed all the tests.

"There is nothing wrong with the plant health and it can be over just one lump of soil on a potato, no bigger than the size of a thumbnail, it’s ridiculous."

The 46-year-old, who also owns Barleylands in Billericay, said: "I’ll stop growing potatoes because I can’t compete price for price with supermarkets in the UK.

"If this continues there will be no potatoes grown in Essex or at least very few.

"The staff redundancies to start with I don’t want to contemplate. It will change my business completely, it will upset the farm rotation and I like putting something towards the British export business.

"Anyone thinking of going to the Canaries should consider the other three islands and not Tenerife at the moment."

Father-of-two Bill Halls, 52, who ships over about four containers to the Canaries a week from his 100 acres of potato fields at family-run Israels Farm, in Mashbury Road, Great Waltham, said: "It costs an awful lot of money to farm potatoes, a very high-risk crop, and I will have to explore other avenues because I can’t go on like this, I would be forced to stop farming potatoes.

"We’re all as bemused. We don’t understand what it’s all about and it would be a lot easier to swallow this if we could see what the problem was, but we just can’t.

"We’re not trying anything flash, we’re just trying to make a living."

A North Weald farmer has had nine lorry loads of potatoes rejected by the Canary Islands inspectors over high soil levels.

David Kerr, who owns 200 acres in potato fields at Wilding Tree Farm in Weald Bridge Road, then had his nine containers strangely accepted when he re-sent them in September.

“It seems grossly unfair,” he said.

“They’re quite happy to have our tourists there but not our potatoes.

“It seems politically motivated.”

After Mr Philpot contacted his MP Sir Alan Haselhurst in October, news filtered through to parliamentary under secretary of state for farming, food and marine environment George Eustice, and in turn, Geoffrey Van Orden MEP.

Mr Van Orden contacted the European Commission, the National Farmers Union and the British consul for Tenerife, Charmaine Arbouin, last Thursday, writing: "It would seem that some particular individuals or authorities in Tenerife are acting arbitrarily and deliberately creating obstacles to trade, which are an infringement of EU regulations."

Mr Philpot even suggested that UK potatoes were being rejected in order to drive-up prices of home-grown potatoes.

Juan Castella, the managing director of Mr Philpot’s exporter Pan European Potatoes, said: "It affects clients in the Canaries too because they’re hoping to get some potatoes and they’re being rejected.

"There’s also not much consistency in their decisions. Sometimes the container passes and sometimes it’s rejected."

The Chronicle contacted the island’s potato inspector last Friday, but they did not respond.

But a Defra spokesman, responding on behalf of the British consul for Tenerife, said: "We understand the concerns and are working with the Spanish authorities to clarify what export standards are acceptable to the Canary Islands to help ensure there are no future problems."