Australians are being hit with a potato shortage, with growers having experienced what they say has been one of the toughest seasons in a decade. 
Extreme weather conditions are significantly impacting crop yields and resulting in extensive shortages in South Australia, which produces around 80% of the country’s potatoes.
It has led to a reduced supply on supermarket shelves.
Mitolo Family Farms is Australia’s biggest potato producer with crops in the Riverland, Murray Mallee and Adelaide Plains regions.
It grows and supplies more than 200,000 tonnes of market-washed potatoes all year round, but has been facing difficulties in recent months.
The latest drought report from the Bureau of Meteorology indicates that some regions of South Australia experienced historically low rainfall from January 1 to September 30.
Mitolo Family Farms Head of Marketing and Sales Josh Tselekidis said the season had been “one of the toughest in over 10 years”.
“The combination of a hot summer with late-season heat increasing soil temperatures, followed by cold, wet, and windy weather, has led to reduced yields and issues such as cold cracking, harvest damage, skin blemishes, and noticeable lenticels,” he explained.
“While staining is only cosmetic, overall quality and marketable supply have been affected.”
Coles and Woolworths have notices up across some of their stores, alerting customers to the shortage and changes to appearance of potatoes.
Major supermarkets have pointed to a natural decrease due to seasonal transition periods and anticipate that supply will improve in the upcoming weeks.
Tselekidis said he expected the low potato supply to last for another month, despite the upcoming season harvest.
“There have been widespread shortages since late August, which will likely persist for at least another three or four weeks,” he added.
