Weather wreaks havoc with potato crops causing supply shortfall

Even home supplies are dwindling as one major supermarket just before Christmas restricted customers to buying just two items of frozen potato chips per transaction.

Astor Hotel head chef Stephen Jones said he had heard two months ago from a supplier that within months there would be no chips in Australia but, fortunately for hungry customers, he still has a supply.

"I'm very much someone to cross that bridge when I get to it," Mr Jones said.

"I got a call from a supplier who said they'd just had a meeting and that they didn't want to cause alarm but potentially there could be no chips in the country soon.

"It's just an industry thing as a whole, all supply and production at the moment is just chaos.

"I've heard that the big wet, bad weather everywhere has caused potato crops to fail. Australia then normally imports from America, but they also had a bad season so they've used up all their supplies.

"I think the main ones have shut off the main chip suppliers in Australia, and they will be shutting off all other companies except for the big ones like the fast food giants."

Mr Jones said he kept a close eye on his frozen chip supply but didn't have the option to stockpile because of limited freezer capacity.

"It's so out of our control, there's nothing we can really do about it," he said. "We don't have the storage facilities and I can't imagine many places around that have the storage facilities to stockpile the chips. And I don't think suppliers have supplied chips for people to even stockpile at the moment. So yeah, certainly at the moment where we're kind of running as is."

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Mr Jones said he used the frozen product only for chips, using fresh potatoes for other menu items.

"We haven't had any problem with fresh potatoes for mash and other things, so far, it hasn't been too much of an issue getting frozen chips except for being able to get the right chips that we want," he said.

"I think the the public are also aware (of a shortfall) ... you'll notice that like even at Woolies and Coles they've got limits on how many chips per customer."

A Coles spokesman told The Border Mail it would be several weeks before stocks were "normalised".

"Poor weather in the eastern states has affected supply of some frozen potato products across the industry," the spokesman said. "We work hard with suppliers to minimise disruption and return stock to normal levels."

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