Complaints, accusations, speculation... What is happening with potatoes in the Canary Islands?

 

What happens with potatoes in the Canary Islands? For just over a week, a shortage of potatoes has begun to be noticed in the Canarian markets and supermarkets, with an excessive price increase observed in the few units that remain available. The indignation has been noted by the population on social networks, where images have been shared of establishments where a kilo of potatoes exceeds €3,40, much higher than the average price which registered this product in 2022, where its maximum was €1,25.

 

 

This precipitous rise began when it was learned that potatoes imported from England were infected by the red beetle, which prevented them from passing the relevant phytosanitary control and left English potatoes out of the market. A harsh and unexpected blow for the sector, yes, but whose consequences seem to have reached such a level that even regional and island corporations have been forced to get involved due to the impossibility of many Canarian families being able to take a sack of potatoes home.

 

One of those corporations was the Cabildo of Gran Canaria, which through its advisor for the Primary Sector, Food Sovereignty and Water, Miguel Hidalgo, denied the shortage of potatoes and was quite indignant with the increase in potato prices, something that considered “a speculation intentionally created to benefit a few”

 

Some statements that raised eyebrows, since the Association of Distributors of Seed and Cultivated Potatoes of Las Palmas (ADIPA) has threatened to denounce the Cabildo "for saying things that are not true"

 

Faced with this threat, the top leader of the insular institution, Antonio Morales, far from mediating to reduce the tension of the situation and showing a more moderate tone than that of his advisor, encouraged the distributors to do so. “Let them do it, I encourage them to do what they do (...) it is good to play with the citizens (...) the demands are not announced, they are put” were some of the statements to the media by the president of the Cabildo of Gran Canaria in recent days in reference to this topic.

 

But far from politicking and exchanging complaints, why is it so difficult to find potatoes in the market? And, above all, why are they unavailable when they are found? In those statements that raised so many blisters, Miguel Hidalgo assured that this week between 40 and 50 containers of potatoes would enter the islands, as well as reporting that the archipelago imports potatoes from more than 15 countries. However, with the week practically over, not only has the situation not been resolved, but expectations in the markets are the same or worse for next week.

 

Given the increasingly serious tone that the situation is taking, the Government of the Canary Islands and the national executive together with the primary sector have begun to look for new countries from which to import since there are still a few months left to harvest the harvest in the Canary Islands. Northern Ireland and Scotland are some of the countries best positioned to import potatoes to the archipelago, although there is some reluctance due to the proximity of both to England.

 

With these data and expectations that do not invite us to be optimistic, the "What's happening with potatoes in the Canary Islands?" It takes a backseat and the real question that matters to the Canarian people begins to be: How long will this situation last?