Grampian Growers Limited managing director, Mark Clark

2021 WISH List:-

January/February – All EU potato exports were completed in December with the fear that following a no deal, we would not be allowed to export potatoes in our case to Germany and Ireland. There is a nervousness in the UK potato sector regarding demand for Scottish seed if Covid continues to impact on the food sector.

March/April – Our daffodil season relies on 90% of our flower pickers coming from primarily Easter Europe, and with an estimated 50% sign up to the Pre-settled status, we have serious concerns of insufficient picking labour. The aspect of tariffs we will know in December which will impact on a low margin product such as daffodils.

May/June – A big wish would be for decent weather to allow bulb lifting in good conditions (we don’t ask for much). To have our shiny new head office at Logie completed is something we look forward to.

July/August – Strong demand for our daffodil bulbs across the world and the recent shipping issues experienced during our potato exports season to be behind us. The import of Spanish potatoes for our new Chip shop supply business to be a smooth one.

September/October – A second ask for a good spell of weather for potato harvesting hopefully isn’t too much to ask for.

November/December – For the world to get back to some form of normality and ideally long before this.