Driving the future of potato production
The 27th annual SACAPP (SAC Association of Potato Producers) conference in Dundee covered everything from climate change and AI to meeting the demands of the industry through innovation.
Hosted by SAC Consulting (part of SRUC), the annual conference is an opportunity for the potato industry to come together to connect with other producers and hear from experts covering all aspects of potato production.
The event was split into different sections, with the keynote presentation given this year by David Kenyon, the Scottish Government’s Chief Plant Health Officer for Scotland.
Session 1: Applied projects
In the opening session, looking at applied projects, Kyran Maloney, Senior Potato Consultant with SAC Consulting, reflected that the ability to use artificial intelligence (AI) to manage potato crops and forecast pest and disease issues is not quite where it needs to be.
He added that there remains a need for agronomists and that now is the time to attract young people into the industry at what is an exciting period for innovation.
Kicking off the theme of shared learning and international collaboration, Ren Okamura and Hiroto Sugiura, from Calbee Potatoes, who were visiting Scotland for the second time and with us for seven weeks across the growing season to share ideas with the SAC Consulting potatoes team, explained the challenges they have with potato production in Hokkaido, Japan. Climate change has impacted on their crop yields and there has been a switch in the main disease away from late blight and more towards early blight.
The duo, whose challenges are associated with higher temperatures, said early blight was not an issue for them as recently as 15 years ago – now it is the main disease affecting them. Ren and Hiroto said they were impressed with how the industry in Scotland shares information.
Turning the focus back to Scotland, Gavin Prentice, from SAC Consulting, also spoke about the challenges of climate change here in Scotland. He said that, by 2050, water scarcity will increase the need to learn how to adapt to the increasing likelihood of winter abundance followed by a lack of supply in the summer.
Concluding the session with a perspective from the next generation, Daniel Norrie, SRUC student, finished the first session by reporting his results from his final-year project on a destoning survey in Scotland, highlighting the importance of understanding your soil type and soil depth. His contribution underlined the value of encouraging new entrants into the sector and sharing practical research with industry.
Session 2: Production
Jacob Smith, from Fibe, told delegates about producing fibres from potato haulm to meet the demands of the clothing industry. He explained this is another area where climate change is having an adverse impact, with cotton production at risk due to its demands on water.
He told delegates that looking at the potential use of fibre from potatoes to blend with other fibres can be part of the solution. He is currently working with breeders, growers and the clothing industry to promote potato haulm as an alternative fibre to use.
Continuing the focus on innovation, Mark Croal of Ploeger (Oxbo) Machinery highlighted advancements in agricultural machinery across the UK and US, emphasising that shifts in crop production often go hand-in-hand with technological innovation in equipment.
He looked ahead to a future where he anticipated advanced robotics and automation will lead to swarms of machines working together to manage crops.
Focusing on practical decision-making tools for growers, Kerry Leslie, from SAC Consulting, demonstrated the recently launched PCN scenario planner tool designed and built by SoilEssentials as part of their PCN Action Scotland project. This is a free to use tool using a system which models how Potato Cyst Nematode populations are likely to change over time depending on varieties of potatoes grown, predicting how these changes could impact yield under different management strategies.
Bringing the discussion back to the farm level, James Thorburn of Farewell Farms, Orkney, described his seed potato business, attributing its success to producing pre-basic seed potatoes in isolation. He also grows a small quantity of ware potatoes for the local market. However, farming in Orkney presents its own challenges, particularly weather, energy prices, fertiliser and labour costs, with renewable wind and solar power, supported by battery storage, helping to secure electricity supply.
Session 3: New solutions
Mark Elliot, from Crop Hound, told delegates how his in-field sensors and cameras can monitor crops, potential yield, drought, disease, pests and weeds, which can help bring solutions to the problems his customers face. He emphasised that climate change is bringing new challenges to pests and disease issues and improved technologies can help address them.
Shifting focus from technological solutions to global perspectives, SAC Consulting’s Neil Spink told delegates about his potato production fact-finding visit to the US, where he saw large enterprises growing seed in Montana and ware in Idaho. He reflected that the scale of the farms in terms of area and the level of machinery was much greater than we see in Scotland.
Returning to innovations closer to home, Marc Skivington also told the conference about his smart farmer safety app, developed after he discovered there is no effective method to log machinery defects. He developed his own to help boost safety.
It has since been expanded to cover all safety, maintenance and compliance processes across the farm and it has generated interest in different parts of the world.
Session 4: Keynote presentation
David Kenyon, the Scottish Government’s Chief Plant Health Officer for Scotland, spoke about the past, present and future of plant health issues in his keynote presentation. The current Scottish Plant Health Strategy and roadmap started in 2024, with areas of activity including monitoring, contingency plans to deal with outbreaks and training to identify new threats.
He also spoke about the risk of climate change, saying many bacterial diseases are spread by different insects that will only become more prevalent in a warmer and wetter world.
With insects and crop diseases not respecting borders, David said there are good levels of communication over new outbreaks with counterparts in England, Northern Ireland and across Europe.
As an example, he spoke of Colorado beetles being detected in Kent in July 2023, which led to intensive surveillance and control efforts by the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA). Those efforts proved successful, with the outbreak being confirmed as being eradicated from the UK by December 2025.
However, there are challenges ahead, with warmer winters meaning aphids are now appearing in traps one month earlier than in previous years. Aphids are a threat both from direct feeding but, more importantly, because they transmit viruses.
Communication and collaboration were key phrases which David emphasised as being important when tackling new threats.
Heather Bruce, from the SAC Consulting potato team, concluded the conference by acknowledging the trials work that has taken place at West Fingask with Patrick Sleigh over the past 20 years. She stressed that access to a commercial potato farm is essential to understand the challenges affecting the industry and for demonstrating field trials which are designed to address them.
Reflecting on the success of the event, Kyran Maloney said: “This year’s SACAPP conference was a fantastic opportunity to bring the industry together at a time of significant change. The quality of discussion and the willingness to share ideas, both here in Scotland and internationally, shows just how forward-thinking and resilient the potato sector is.”
Overall, this year’s SACAPP conference demonstrated both the scale of the challenges facing potato production and the depth of innovation being developed to address them. As the industry continues to adapt to a changing production environment, collaboration between growers, researchers and policymakers will remain essential.
To learn more about how SAC Consulting is supporting innovation in potato production, get in touch with our specialist team at potato@sruc.ac.uk.
Posted by SAC Consulting on 06/03/2026
