Key Points
- Australia is in the midst of a potato shortage.
- It's caused cafés and resturants to become creative with their menus and one supermarket to introduce customer limits.
- Only around 70 per cent of the potatoes consumed in Australia are grown here.
It's a household freezer staple.
But if you've been struggling to get your hands on a bag of frozen chips lately, you're not the only one.
has led some cafés and restaurants to temporarily substitute the deep-fried favourite with sweet potato, or take it off the menu altogether, while one major supermarket has introduced limits on the number of bags customers can buy.
What's causing the shortage?
Flooding and consistent wet weather throughout much of last year dramatically impacted Australian potato growers' yields.
"Potatoes are quite a set-season crop, so they need sort of that three to four-month period to come up out of the ground, develop a good plant, set tubers, and then grow those tubers," potato grower and Victorian Farmers Federation horticulture vice president Katherine Myers told SBS News.
"The prolonged wet weather made it too difficult to manage the crops that were in the ground, made it difficult to harvest early crops, and it meant there were really quite significant delays in getting the new crops planted, particularly in the [NSW] Riverina, and in the Central Highlands here in Victoria, and in Tasmania."
That's not only impacted the number of spuds that have grown in potato processing regions, but their size.
"The larger the potato, the better the skin-to-potato ratio. When you've got smaller potatoes, you have a lot more wastage in the factory," she said.
An empty frozen chips shelf at Woolworths Metro in Coogee, Sydney, on Monday afternoon. Source: SBS News
"Potato cakes and things like that get covered in batter, wedges get covered in batter, so you're less likely to see shortages of those type products because there are more varieties that can be used and the quality doesn't have to be as specific," she said.
Ms Myers said the drought in Europe last summer has impacted supply levels, as well.
"We only grow about 70 per cent of our potatoes that we consume in Australia, in Australia," she said.
"As much as the processors and the factories and companies like McCain's and Simplot would plan to bring potatoes in from Europe, that surplus hasn't been there this year, so it's sort of a double-whammy," she said.
AUSVEG - the peak body for the Australian vegetable and potato industries - said a surge in demand for frozen potato products was also contributing to the shortage.
How long will the shortage last?
In response to the shortage, Coles introduced a temporary purchase limit before Christmas of two frozen potato products per customer.
No purchase limits have been introduced for fresh potatoes.
"We thank customers for their patience while we work hard with suppliers to minimise disruption and return stock to normal levels in the coming months," a Coles spokesperson told SBS News.
A spokesperson for Woolworths told SBS News the supermarket giant didn't have any plans to introduce purchase limits on frozen potato products, saying it has "more supply".
Ms Myers said she expected the shortage of frozen chips to continue through the year.
"We're really not likely to see good potato yields returning in the next 12 months," she said.
"As farmers, our heart goes out to consumers, fish and chip shop owners, and restaurant owners because we know how hard it is for us at the moment.
With climate change contributing to the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, Ms Myers said she expected the number of failed potato crops would increase in the future.
