Storm Babet, which made landfall in the UK on 19th October, brought torrential rainfall, causing extensive flooding, particularly in parts of Scotland where it was the second storm to hit the country in as many weeks.

Potato farmers to the northeast of Edinburgh, specifically Angus, were among the hardest hit. Most potato crops, which were still in the ground, were affected. According to market sources, roughly 10-20% of the crop in this region was yet to be harvested.

Bob Carruth NFUS Communication Director:

"We have been hit by two storms in the last couple of weeks, both of which caused significant damage. We are still gathering information from local offices, while more yellow weather warnings were issued on Sunday for heavy rain and more heavy rain is forecast this week."

The NFUS is still trying to access damage in the affected areas but confirmed that some have growers have suffered significant damage, one turnip grower lost a crop worth £350,000, also extensive damage was done to infrastructure, farm buildings and flood defences already in place. It is estimated that the cost of reinstatement will come to millions.

"At the moment it is hard to tell what affect it will have on production, certainly potato growing areas have seen intensive flooding, some growers were able to harvest in between the storms and growers are doing everything thing they can to salvage the crops, but there will inevitably be losses."

Dave Ramsey, Potato Manager at Grampian Potatoes:

"At the moment we are exporting seed potatoes to Egypt, of which 90% had already been harvested before the storm, unfortunately seed still in the ground may not be worth lifting, we'll probably only get around half of it."

Exports had to be temporality halted as the Port of Grangemouth was closed due the storm, also inspection by the Scottish government were cancelled but they have caught up now.

Angela Porchez, General Manager at Angus Growers:

“As a group, Angus Growers have been lucky. We have sustained mild wind damage to tunnels, but thankfully there has been minimal risk of crop loss a result of the flooding simply due to the time of year as there is very little fruit cropping close to the ground.”

Source - https://www.freshplaza.com