This week The Scottish Farmer caught up with Alistair Melrose, general manager at J and E Smillie and director of Caledonia Potatoes, to find out how the export season went for the seed sector.

Seed tattie growers have much to be pleased about with good harvest condition, strong export prices and international demand. But rising costs, over reliance on Egyptian buyers and the continued EU trade blockade will mean that 2024 will not be all plain sailing.

The Egyptian market is the destination for the majority of exported seed, which was exacerbated after the EU banned UK imports following Brexit and Russia was closed after the Ukraine invasion.

Hotter and drier summers by the Nile is pushing African growers to plant early in autumn to ensure the crop is lifted in good time. This has meant that Egyptian import authorities are pulling shipping deadlines back 10 days to December 5 – making it a tight turnround for Scottish growers.

However, Mr Melrose pointed out: "The majority of the people will have made the deadline, which was greatly aided by an early harvest. We grow around 650 acres of seed ourselves and you are rushing to get them lifted so you can get the grading underway.

"Last year, we were caught with £250,000 of potatoes rejected due to the loading date on the document at the other side. This was fresh in our minds, so we got the loading for Egypt complete last week.”

Low disease and plant health are key selling points for Scottish seed, he said: “Not a lot of health issue in the crops, only some water wound rot caused by soil born fungus.

"In drier, warmer years it can be more of an issue with mechanical damage giving an opportunity to let the fungus in. We call it the silent assassin, as the potatoes look okay and you ship them off, only to find its an issue at the ports in Egypt and the load gets rejected.”

Exports look set to be up from last year’s 47,700 tonnes of seed to Egypt, but final numbers are not known yet. So far, labels for 61,000 tonnes of potatoes have been printed, but some of these could be duplicates or replacements.

Last year, demand was dampened by strong external supply to the Egyptian market which resulted in weaker Scottish seed prices as ours are often the last tatties to arrive.

Read more: Potatoes up £50 per tonne on the year

However, it is a nervous time for growers and merchants as ships leaving Scotland typically take around 28 days, if going via Rotterdam, or 21 days via Antwerp to get to Egypt.

Mr Melrose said this was a nervous wait: “It is usually around Christmas time you might get a call about rejections, so if you can get into the new year and not hear anything you can raise a drink.

"So far, there has been no news of rots at inspection with the majority which have been met being well received. Only the odd box has been rejected for spraing, so it is looking pretty good. “

This year, there was continued demand growth for Cara, which is competing with Hermes as the most popular seed being shipped from Scotland. From the 61,000 tonnes of labels printed, 25,000 were for Cara – a sharp rise from the 16,000 tonnes last year.

Historically, a lot of Cara was grown in Scotland in the late 1990s and into the 'noughties' before its popularity waned. This indeterminate variety keeps on growing and needs burned down at the end of August before lifting at the end of September – but where Hermes would yield 8-9 tonnes, Cara could be 10 tonnes.

Cara is a traditional high yielding variety in Egypt and has stood the test of time, but when it the seed came off license supply dipped. But Mr Melrose believed there is enough supply for Scottish growers now which one of the reasons for its presence on the export market.

Another change in the seed potato export sector has been a rise in Egyptian merchants buying off farm in Scotland and then selling direct to growers in Africa. These merchants are typically paying cash upfront for entire crops and offering a premium of £50/t to £75/t over market prices.

Initially, there was hesitancy amongst Scottish growers to deal with relatively unknown buyers but the practice appears to be increasingly popular.

Competition in Egypt is mainly coming from the Dutch, who ship their seed potatoes earlier in the season with the variety Spunta most popular. But the high health status of Scottish seed means Egypt remains strong market for us.

However, Mr Melrose is a little anxious about putting all our tatties in one basket. He said: “The Egyptian market is very healthy but we are over reliant and if there was an issue getting potatoes in, then we would be in trouble.

"Israel is a shrinking market at the moment. Morocco is fairly buoyant but the price is yet to be fixed and it only takes 8000 to 9000 tonnes. ”

This year Hermes seed potatoes have been trading at around £400/t with Cara between £400/t to £450/t. Next year, there are rumours the loading cut off date could move to December 1, which Mr Melrose said could be a mechanism for the Egyptian government to introduce a quota system.