The potato sector is massively underselling its £4.5bn contribution to the UK economy during discussions and negotiations with politicians and policy makers, a leading economist has warned.

Speaking at last week’s SAC Association of Potato Producers (SACAPP) annual conference, SRUC reader in economic policy and government advisor, Steven Thomson, said that the sector had a history of not rating highly on the radar of those drawing up policy, partly as a legacy of having drawn little in the way of farm support payments – and hence attention – during the 40 odd years of the Common Agricultural Policy.

But he warned that the industry needed to raise its profile if it wanted to gain the recognition it deserved – and one sure way of doing this was to properly publicise the role it played in the wider economy by highlighting the full worth which the sector generated.

“The value of the sector is often bandied about as being worth in the region of £765m per year – but that is simply the price of farmgate sales, with no value being put on the spending which is generated both upstream and downstream of that point,” he said.

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He warned this was not the approach being adopted in other industries or other sectors: “For instance, if it was valued purely at farmgate level, Scotland’s beef industry would be worth around £950m – yet the figure used in discussions with the Scottish Government value it at £3bn after the upstream spend on feed, fertilisers and other inputs are included and the value added further down the supply chain by abattoirs, processors butchers and retailers are factored in.”

Urging growers and those advising the industry to think outwith the box, he admitted that while the upstream costs of fertilisers, power, machinery and haulage spent by the industry could be gleaned from available figures, commercial confidentiality made it more difficult to assess how much was being made in added value by sectors such as retailers and processors – and also in the form of wages paid to those working in the sector.

“And haulage, along with the retail and hospitality sectors, etc add even more to the downstream impacts,” he argued

However, mr Thomson said that by using the household spend on potato and potato products as a proxy it was possible to evaluate this: “While spend by the industry stands close to a total of £1.5bn, deeper analysis shows that in the region of a further £3bn is generated beyond the farmgate – putting the total value of the sector’s contribution to the UK’s economy at closer to £4.5bn.”

“And if the sector took full cognisance of the total value generated, it is far more likely to make an impression when in discussions with policy makers – not only over support and policy but also of the provision of the necessary infrastructure required to facilitate the continued operation of the industry.”

He added that these figures could be harnessed particularly well for Scotland’s seed potato sector – as the provision of good quality, healthy seed was the bedrock upon which the entire potato sector was built.