LAST WEEK, Tesco announced to its growers that it is relaxing the spec' on potato sizing for this season. Minimum tuber size will go down from 45 to 40 mm and baker size will reduce from 65 to 60mm. I can’t decide if this is going to be good for us growers or not.

I feel a bit like Tevye, in Fiddler on the Roof, weighing up the suitability of his daughters’ prospective husbands – on the one hand, more of our crop will have a market. On the other, because there will be more crop available, the market price will be lower.

And also, because we have sold more crop at contract price, more will be left over to sell at market price, which should be higher than contract price this year. (Not exactly difficult, I grant you).

On the other hand, the cost per tonne of production will be much higher due to lower yields and high irrigation costs, so we might get a higher price for our potatoes, but they will have cost us much more to produce.

I think, on balance, it will probably work out fine, for two reasons. Firstly, between us and where Tevye was farming on the Russian steppe, there isn’t a region that hasn’t had a roasting summer combined with a drought, so imports are not going to make up the shortage.

Secondly, I don’t think the spec' change will make up enough of the shortage to depress prices significantly. Potato expert, Stuart Wale, reckons it might add 5% to the crop, though it is difficult to estimate.

The AHDB estimated planting area is 119000 ha – the third lowest on record. On the other hand (apologies, no more other hands after this one), there is a carryover of last year’s crop gently mouldering in stores which is being retrospectively run over graders to knock the sprouts off and presented to the public as we speak, despite being written off by packers a month ago. This can’t be great for sales or prices.

So, are we looking at a 2012 potato year? I still think it’s likely, because England was planted very late and has had hot and dry conditions ever since. It all depends on how much national yields are down – AHDB estimates between 1% and 15%, which tells us nothing.

For all our sakes, let’s hope it’s nearer 15% than 1%. Let’s also hope this leads to a more equitable contract price next year, where the grower is paid more than just a smidge above the cost of production.

While the prospects for potato growers this year are uncertain, something that is crystal clear to me is that there is a huge untapped potential for farmers in agri-food tourism.

I recently I had a conversation with Caroline Millar, of Hideaway Experience, who has been working on a new food tourism strategy with Scotland Food and Drink and Visit Scotland, which will be unveiled this month. Caroline, with her husband, Ross, has turned her farm into a kind of lover’s retreat (or a den of iniquity according to the salacious stories she can tell about some guests). She believes there is plenty of room for more of us to do something similar.

While there is more than enough self-catering accommodation across rural Scotland, there are a limited number of great places to stay which also offer great locally produced food. Here in the vegetable and soft fruit basket of Angus, we have a great healthy food message to sell, with the Angus glens and the beautiful coast with cliffs, golf courses and sandy beaches providing a spectacular backdrop. Other regions can focus upon their strong points.

In Caroline’s words: “The high demand gap which farmers can fill is for quality accommodation which offers a fantastic food experience with locally farmed and fished produce. What’s also in demand is rich storytelling, the chance to meet and interact with local people and learn about how our food is produced.”

Caroline thinks there is a strong case for NFUS to be heavily involved in helping to develop this sector and I agree with her. It will be a vital component if farming is to be self-sustaining in the future and I think there should be a working group on it at the very least.

There is also a huge potential for growth, which is not something you could say about many sectors of agriculture currently.

I think it’s worth comparing statistics with Austria to get an idea of potential. For instance, 5% of Scotland’s GDP in 2016, £6bn, came from tourism and much of that would have been concentrated in Edinburgh and Skye. In contrast, 8.8% of Austria’s GDP, some £40bn, came from tourism in the same year.

Now, I know we don’t have the skiing and we do have midges, and the rain, but we can offer something different. Our country is beautiful too, we speak English, and so do the other fine inhabitants of the British Isles and 11.6m of them visited Scotland in 2016.

Many Americans have their roots here, with 451,000 of them visiting us in 2016. The Germans are the next biggest visitors – 355,000 of them came in 2016. We should provide them with more places to stay, more great food offerings and activities, and encourage them to spend more and one advantage of a weaker pound is that it makes Scotland a cheaper place for tourists.

The Highlands, in particular, has a huge untapped potential to make a self-sustaining income for local residents. Recently, I stopped at the excellent Real Food Café, in Tyndrum, for a coffee on the way up to walk the rugged South Glen Shiel ridge and I overheard two German ladies speaking to two English ones about where they were going. They said they were going straight to Kyle of Lochalsh as there was nowhere with a vacancy to stay between Tyndrum and there.

I believe this is the case across the Highlands. There is nowhere near enough accommodation and eating options available, and the German ladies were not keen to camp out again after their first time until they had purchased a midge net.

Nobody wants the Highlands to lose its remote natural beauty, but the hardy souls that make their living there are in desperate need of an additional source of income, rather than being wholly dependent upon sheep.

I think there is also a strong case for developing huts which offer basic catering in the hills like they have in the Alps. Austria has 629 mountain huts, with a warden in most of them, and they cater for all budgets. As well as existing ones, new routes could be established and maintained and an infrastructure to manage it sympathetically and sustainably put in place.

There would be many employment opportunities for guides and hut wardens. Schools could do walking trips without having to carry huge amounts of kit.

If dealing with people is really not for you, many of the huts in the mountains in Austria are owned by the landowner but then rented out to the hut warden who makes his or her living selling food and drink. Of course, it all needs investment and where the money comes from to kick start it is another question.

As Tevye sang: “If I were a rich man!”