Hottest summer means smallest potatoes

They are a staple of the Sunday roast and a topic of fierce debate — from how best to cook them to how many it is acceptable to pile on to your plate. This year British potatoes destined for supermarket shelves will be smaller than ever, affecting everything from roast potatoes to crisps and chips. Most commented 1 My partner died. Then I found a text: ‘Shall we have an affair?’ Sex & Relationships 233 comments 2 I sleep with my dogs. A new study proves it’s better for me Pets 134 comments 3 Harvey Elliott was England’s next great hope. Now he’s out of the picture Football 75 comments 4 500 arrested as French police use tear gas during student protests Europe 52 comments 5 Oliver Glasner: Premier League’s integrity at risk if Man City case drags on Football 34 comments After farmers toiled during the hottest summer on record and widespread drought, they are now reporting one of their worst potato harvests in history. Top stories 1 Trump Jr’s ex-fiancée ‘asked donor to pay 0k credit card bill’ US politics 2 Trump’s war with Iran doubles the cost of his rides in ‘the Beast’ US politics 3 Starbucks ‘explores takeover’ of Chipotle Mexican Grill US business 4 ‘More lives will be lost’ unless UK takes action on wildfires Environment Karen Betts, the chief executive of the Food and Drink Federation, told The Times it was the “ worst harvest in the UK for potatoes since the 1950s, and they’re going to be really small”. Karen Betts James Glossop for the Times “The issue is water, 70 to 80 per cent of a potato is water,” she said. “So if you don’t have enough water, your potato will be smaller, as will your yield.” Advertisement The poor, smaller crop, will also affect chips this winter, with manufacturers of oven chips having to make do with smaller cuts. Top stories 1 How Bob Marley became an unlikely beneficiary of the slave trade History 2 Milos Raonic: Wimbledon finalist to investment banker at Goldman Sachs Tennis 3 Mortgage rates dip after weeks of painful rises Mortgages 4 New ‘My husband’s family want us to pay £500 towards his sister’s holiday’ Ask Times Money Betts said she had visited the McCain’s factory in Scarborough, as well as a potato farmer, and it “really brings home to you how tough it is for the farming community”. “They have planted a crop, they’ve watered it, and they’ve fertilised it, and they cannot then get the return on that investment because of something completely out of their control, which is the weather,” she said. Without enough water, potatoes will be smaller Justin Paget/Getty images Scott Walker, the chief executive of GB Potatoes, the trade body, said lower yields were being seen “across the board” because potatoes “just didn’t have that chance to bulk up”. He added: “So even where farmers have used irrigation — and a lot of the crop was irrigated this year and more heavily than in the past — what that’s been able to do is largely just sustain the crop.” Advertisement Walker said bags would have less of a variety of large, medium and small potatoes, with shoppers noticing the size of baking potatoes shrinking in the coming months. “It doesn’t affect the quality, it doesn’t affect the taste, but it does affect the appearance of your product,” he said. “And one of the most noticeable ways will be smaller potatoes. Your chip may become smaller in the months ahead.” Walker said the government could help farmers by permitting more reservoirs on farms to allow irrigation during long, dry summers. Farmers experienced widespread drought Justin Paget/Getty images The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has said “food security is national security”, with Andy Burnham announcing a £65m package to aid agriculture in August, including £15m for on-farm reservoirs. Analysis by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), a think tank, has found the impact of the exceptionally hot and dry weather in summer 2026 is expected to knock 440,000 tonnes off the potato harvest in Great Britain, making it the smallest on record, with losses estimated at between £80m and £169m. Advertisement Tom Lancaster, head of land, food and farming at ECIU, said increased water storage on farms was “absolutely part of the solution” but it would not be a “silver bullet” for farms where reservoirs were unsuitable or where rivers could not cope with the abstraction levels required to irrigate crops. Oven chips will be smaller Anton Dobrea/Getty images Lancaster said potatoes were often grown one year in every four as part of a rotation of crops, which would make investment in irrigation for potatoes hard to justify. “You need to do something about the extreme drought and heat, so you need to do mitigation against climate change, and not just adaptation,” he said. Yorkshire joined all of central, southern and eastern England in drought status on Friday, after months of unusually dry weather and below average rainfall through September. The northeast and northwest of England remain in prolonged dry weather. In Oxfordshire, a climate-resilient seed project successfully grew aubergines and watermelons in the hotter and drier summer conditions.