A MEETING of Scottish seed potato growers in Forfar this week has agreed to set up a co-op to represent the sector.

The new body, which is as yet unnamed, aims to deliver four outcomes for the seed potato sector; support development of markets; secure economic and environmental sustainability; fund research, innovation and technical services which benefit the sector; and represent the views of seed potato producers to regulators and others.

The new group hopes to raise £250,000 per year based on members paying around £40/hectare of planted seed potatoes. There is planned additional income from associated members and trade organisations which will help top up the co-op’s funds.

The body is to be in collaboration with Scottishpotatoes.org (a partnership of SRUC, JHI and SASA) which is offering to support the organisation during its formation. There will also be input from NFU Scotland and Scottish Agronomy alongside support from SAOS in establishing the co-op structure.

The Forfar meeting was attended by 15 invited seed potato growers and followed a similar meeting earlier in the week at Kinross. From this there is now a ten member steering group of growers who will develop the co-op. The steering group aim to launch the body at the Potatoes in Practice event scheduled for August.

The new body will take on some of the functions of AHDB potatoes which was voted out of existence by levy payers in 2021. However the focus will initially be the seed potato sector. The voluntary membership will be primarily Scottish businesses, however the group could look to expand into England if there was benefit.

Lead organiser and NFUS potato chair Mike Wilson, of Clochcan farm, said: “We are one of if not the best at producing seed potatoes in the world. We need to try and focus on keeping that standard and this new co-op will help us achieve it.

“Key to the new body is that it will be 100% grower led. Only growers will be able to decide how the money is spent.”

The body will initially use volunteers to get it off the ground, before employing a small number of staff. There will be a governance process including a board and elected chairperson. As a co-op voting will be based on one member, one vote regardless of the area of potatoes grown by each farmer.

Ten growers have volunteered to form a steering group to get the new group off the ground. This group will work with SAOS to ensure a robust governance and membership process is created. As a co-op, democratic representation is key to the new organisation.

Mike believes one of the key areas of work for the new body will be research. He said: “We need to do work with virus on seed potatoes. AHDB had yellow aphid traps and we will look into continuing that work. Blight research is also needed and further down the line we could even look at genetic modification.”

The group hope to be in a position for seed potato growers to join the co-op this time next year.

Meanwhile a consignment of 2000 tonnes of seed potatoes is heading for Russia despite criticism the shipment shouldn’t go ahead. The shipment is heading for food giant Pepsico who will used the seed potatoes to grow produce for crisps. There is no legal impediment to exporting seed potatoes to Russia as they do not fall under any of the sanctions created after the Ukraine invasion.

However Scottish Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Islands, Rachael Hamilton said: “Questions will need to be answered as to why the SNP Government approved the deal at this time.”