POTATO planting has started in earnest around the Island, including out west, with farmers having to navigate a tricky start to the season due to the inclement weather.
Among those braving the winter winds were the Carré family, of Fosse au Bois Growers, who planted the first of its 1,130 vergées this season.
Paul Carré said that the team, including 15 staff who had all returned from the Philippines, had got to work at L’Etacq and by the bottom of Mont Matthieu and would be hard at work until mid-April.
He said that the farm was growing around 2,400 tonnes of Jersey Royals this year. Planting had got off to a good start although Storm Goretti had delayed covering the fields in plastic.
Mike Renouard, Jersey Royal Company’s business unit director, said that a few sheets of plastic had come off fields during last week’s storm but the greater damage had been sheets and panes lost from polytunnels and glasshouses covering indoor early potatoes.
“That means we will now have a bit of reduction in yields from the indoor crop, which we wouldn’t be digging till the end of March anyway,” he said.
Looking at the season in the round, Mr Renouard said: “It is still very early days but the weather around Christmas was reasonable so we got quite a few of the early côtils planted, so that’s all gone in on time.
“We had a bit of a pause while the storm passed through and now we are out there again, dodging the showers. We’re happy where we are.”
Mr Renouard added that this was the second season of the single Jersey Royal Company under the ownership of Albert Barlett.
“Last year, we were pulling a lot of things together and had a lot of new staff. We’ve now got a year under our belts and made a few changes which should be bedded in for this season. So, we expect to be a bit more comfortable this year because of what we’ve learned,” he said.
Mr Renouard added that a similar area of vergées would be farmed this year as last year, which was a “ok season” so the industry was hoping for a similar one in 2026.
He added that there remained an unchanged nine contract growers in Jersey as well as the Jersey Royal-owned farm.
“Everyone is busy now, not least clearing trees brought down by last week’s storm,” he continued. “It was nowhere near as bad as Ciarán but Goretti still had an impact: often trees will be quickly cleared from roads by moving them into nearby fields, but then it is usually up to the farmer to foot the bill for removing them and cleaning up.”
