THE POTATO MARKET IN BRITAIN Available to Purchase

It is demonstrated that larger producers are not only more efficient in the use of resources but they also market higher quality potatoes. These producers, few in number compared with the total, grow a large proportion of the potatoes now; but the important question is, do recent policy developments give such producers the freedom to expand quickly enough, which is synonymous with our achieving efficiency in the potato sector as a whole? Changes in the size structure of potato production have been slow. At the same time yield increases mean that we can get the same production from a smaller area. The implications of the declining production area and for the reducing number of producers, and for freeing successful growers to expand, suggest a policy of quota and price support is in conflict with a free market economy which would ensure an efficient and viable potato sector through competition within it.