The Jersey Royal Company said this week that demand had been outstripping supply during the early weeks of the export season, while Jersey Dairy has seen a spike in orders from Asian consumers.
Wet weather in February meant a slow start to the potato-growing season, but William Church, marketing director of the Jersey Royal Company, said growers were working hard to close the gap between demand and supply.
‘With the recent improved weather we forget that six weeks ago we were wearing snorkels, not face masks, because it was so wet,’ he said. ‘The rain and the north-easterly winds affected yields, but there is light at the end of the tunnel and inquiries are coming in left, right and centre.’
Mr Church said that there had been plentiful good publicity for Jersey Royals, including national newspaper articles and TV coverage featuring celebrity chefs Phil Vickery and James Martin.
‘People have definitely been starting to think about and talk about Royals, it’s just a question of meeting demand, but average yields are now increasing and more supplies will be going out next week and the week after,’ he added.
Jersey Dairy has enjoyed mixed fortunes as a result of the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on demand, both locally and globally.
Fresh milk sales rose by 5% last month with the Dairy attributing this rise to people using more milk for tea, coffee and home-cooking.
Long-life milk has seen a massive spike in demand, with the equivalent of six months of sales during a two-week period at the end of March.
Marketing director Bob Jones said that although the company did expect to suffer overall losses as a result of the pandemic, there were bright spots.
‘We send 60% of our exports to the UK and that’s difficult – we’d expect there to be a high demand for ice cream starting around this time of year which isn’t happening,’ he said. ‘But there is high demand for milk and butter from Asian markets such as Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea which is helping us to mitigate.’
Jersey Milk is valued by Asian consumers for its nutritional benefits, and exports to Hong Kong have doubled to 120,000 litres per month.
