The chips are down

George's Fish and Chip Shop are having a shortage in potatoes. Vilia Ngawaka holding one of the small potatoes they have to use. Photo by Devyn Staines

Our national dish is under threat ... from a shortage of spuds.

It is not quite the great potato famine, but growers have been hit by "a perfect storm" and New Zealand's favourite takeaway is bearing the brunt.

In Wanganui, it's small potatoes at George's Fish and Chip Shop in Victoria Ave. Owners Greg and Yvonne Robinson have a sign telling customers their chips will be smaller then usual.

Mr Robinson said the shortage was a seasonal one, but this year had been particularly bad due to lack of rainfall.

"I hope it will come right in a couple of weeks because these small, out-of-season potatoes are very labour intensive and you can't get many chips out of them.

"They taste all right but I estimate it is costing us one and a half times what we normally spend on potatoes.

"I had to resort to using frozen ones for a day - but I hate doing that, and the frozen ones on the market are all imported."

Mr Robinson said there were fewer potato growers around than there used to be.

"When you drive around the region there are areas where you used to see fields of potato crops and they are not there." He makes chips twice a day so they are fresh for the lunch and dinner servings but when good potatoes are available he doesn't need to make them so often.

"When we have good, fresh Agria potatoes, I can make them once a day because they stay nice and fresh after they have been cut.

"Hill St Greens supply our potatoes and have managed to keep us supplied during this shortage but I look forward to getting hold of some nice big spuds again soon."

Potatoes New Zealand business manager Andrea Crawford said this season had been "a perfect storm".

"The winter growing season was not a good one and the store of old potatoes that usually cover the seasonal gap before the new potatoes are ready was not available.

"The weather before Christmas was cool and damp and then there have been drought conditions since."

She said the number of growers had decreased each year but the acreage remained about the same.

Gordon Lambert, of Hill St Greens, has been buying what he can from around the country.

"Greg [Robinson] is to be commended for using good potatoes and making his own chips because most people are using frozen ones now."

Mr Lambert said he used to grow around 400 acres of potatoes but there was "no money in it any more", and many fish and chip shops were using frozen imported chips.

"They mostly come from Belgium and there was a problem with imported chips from Canada at one time. Greg is one of the few people to use good, local fresh potatoes and that is why his chips taste so good."

Local grower Paul Laugeson said he had had to irrigate his potatoes far more this year.

"The onions started to bolt because they thought they were going back into winter and the newer varieties of potato don't cope with unseasonable weather. The old varieties like Ilam Hardy and Rua cope better," he said.