The Estimated Economic Contribution of Scotland’s Seed and Ware Potato Sectors. An output of WP1: Economic Assessment of the Scottish Government funded project:“Delivering a sustainable potato industry for Scotland through management of Potato cyst nematode (PCN)”

A working group of potato industry representatives, government officials and academics was established to identify a strategy and key recommendations for dealing with Potato Cyst Nematode (PCN) in Scotland. Following recommendations from the Scottish PCN Working Group (2020) to the Scottish Government, funding was awarded to a 5-year project of scientific research and knowledge exchange with an aim to deliver a sustainable potato and bulb industry for Scotland through the management of PCN. The project is led by the Plant Health Centre, and involves other organisations including the James Hutton Institute, SRUC, SoilEssentials, Scottish Agronomy and SASA who are all working together to deliver nine core work packages.

This report is part of Work Package 1: Economic Contribution of the Scottish Government funded research project: Delivering a sustainable potato industry for Scotland through management of Potato cyst nematode (PCN). As part of this workstream this report aims to provide new insights into the economic contribution that the Scottish potato sector makes beyond the often cited farmgate value of potato production. This report provides a statistical overview of this concentrated and highly regulated sector, including data on consumption, exports, imports, production, varieties, seed and ware sector – alongside estimates of economic contribution.