Jersey Royal potatoes are likely to be the first casualty of the relentlessly wet start to the season.

With fields on the Channel Island too wet for planting, growers are likely to lose the market window to get early potatoes to UK retailers ahead of the cheaper mainland crop, which will impact on the £30m value of the protected-origin crop to the Jersey economy.

Jersey Royal Company sales and marketing director William Church said some seed had been planted in January. But he added: "We have a couple of hundred staff standing around not doing much, waiting for a full day of dry weather so we can plant again."

Source - http://www.hortweek.com/