Fairfields Farm

Sep 6, 2023

in Canary Islands (Image: Fairfields Farm) Representatives of the governments of the Canary Islands and Spain are looking to Scotland to hep solve a potential potato shortage in the Spanish archipelago. Shipments of potatoes to the Islands from England have stopped due to the presence of a plague of Colorado beetles in crops. It comes after the Colorado beetle pest was found in a Kent potato field in July, making it the first UK appearance of the beetle since 1977. According to Canarian Weekly, England is the main importer of potatoes in the Archipelago, with over 86% of the imports of vegetables, plants, roots and tubers last year. The president of the Association of Seed and Crop Potato Distributors of Las Palmas (ADIPA), Juan Luis Pulido, said: “We are screwed. England provides a huge amount of potatoes that it will not be possible to replace in the coming weeks from other countries. “Those markets are not prepared to make a harvest of such magnitude in such a short time. Right now, we are looking at every market we can. But it is complicated.” The Canarian Government are reported to be looking to replace the loss of supply from England with that of Scotland and other parts of the UK, alongside countries such as Israel, Cyprus, Egypt and Malta. La Voz de Lanzarote said that the majority of the potato supply heading for the Archipelago in October “will arrive mainly from Scotland”. Meanwhile, fears of a potato shortage in the Canary Islands has led to markets experiencing a rise in prices above €3 per kilo, compared to a normal price of €1.2 per kilo. Why are you making commenting on HeraldScotland only available to subscribers? It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse. heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment. We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself. We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories. That is invaluable. We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse. In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com