GB Potatoes comment on NFU press release following roundtable

Alex Godfrey, GB Potatoes Chair, attended the NFU roundtable on Friday 21 August where farming organisations came together to agree the urgent action and investment needed to sustain businesses across England and Wales. 

“GB Potatoes supports the principle of interest-free Farm Crisis Loans to help otherwise viable businesses withstand exceptional cash-flow pressures. Potato production requires substantial upfront investment, and the 2026 drought has left growers in affected areas facing lower yields, smaller tubers, quality pressures and significantly higher irrigation costs. Any scheme must be accessible without excessive bureaucracy and offer repayment terms aligned with agricultural production cycles. Crisis loans could help prevent a short-term shock from causing a permanent reduction in British farming’s capacity to produce domestic food, but they are not a substitute for the long-term investment in water storage that the potato industry needs. We need a clear and consistent planning and abstraction framework that enables growers to build on-farm reservoirs, capture water when it is plentiful and store it for what is becoming increasingly frequent drought periods.”

The NFU press release can be found here

Media and Press: Rebecca Dawes or Katie Insch – gbpotatoes@jcmandco.media