In a year that marks the 100th anniversary of the National Farmers’ Union in Pembrokeshire, Debbie James reflects on the role the union has played in key successes for the county’s farming sector. Here, she talks to Patrick Edgington, the last county secretary of the Pembrokeshire NFU, about how an ailing Pembrokeshire potato industry was saved by a marketing campaign that evolved into the hugely successful Puffin Produce Ltd.

Potato production is now a thriving industry in Pembrokeshire but turn the clock back to 1980 and growers were going out of business, casualties of an over-supplied market and competition from graded imports.

In the words of Patrick Edgington: “The 1980 early potato season in Pembrokeshire was a total disaster.’’

This was mainly due to a larger than normal carry-over of old crop potatoes which flooded the early market in May and June and had a catastrophic impact on prices.

At that time, potatoes grown in Pembrokeshire were not graded unlike imports from Brittany and elsewhere, which were superbly presented.

Since the market was over-supplied, there was little demand for Pembrokeshire early potatoes.

To compound the problem, the Pembrokeshire crop had for years been less desirable than other potatoes due to poor presentation.

“There was an old story in the market place that if you wanted to buy a bag of stones or soil, you should buy a bag of Pembrokeshire potatoes!’’ Mr Edgington recalls.

In his role as NFU county secretary, Mr Edgington realised there was an opportunity to put Pembrokeshire potatoes back on the map – along with profit for the growers.

“The profit was absolutely vital since the growers had experienced several years of fairly slim returns. The 1980 season really put the cap on it.’’

Mr Edgington instigated a series of meetings and from these emerged a study into the feasibility of forming a marketing group and thus the Pembrokeshire Potato Marketing Group Ltd was formed.

The aim was for Pembrokeshire to produce the highest quality-controlled potatoes in Great Britain, and this was achieved through quality control inspectors who visited growers throughout the early season.

Many of the potatoes were graded in a large warehouse on the Thornton Industrial Estate near Milford Haven.

With the Pembrokeshire potato now back in vogue, imports were less desirable and prices stabilised.

When the 1981 deals were monitored by the NFU, potatoes in Puffin bags made £9 a tonne more than the average daily price.

A management committee was created and Mr Edgington, representing the NFU, was co-opted together with representatives of the Potato Marketing Board, Food From Britain and ADAS.

“The next job was to find a brand name and after a lot of rather intriguing suggestions, the name Puffin was chosen,’’ Mr Edgington recollects.

A promotion programme was established and this was hugely successful, leading to the eventual creation of Puffin Marketing Services Ltd. Not only did it sell every potato produced by the members but it created a whole new market for small, mid-season potatoes.

Puffin potatoes sold at a premium and there was a steady and regular demand.

Puffin flourished and so did the workload so the natural next step was to make the organisation a private limited company. In 1995, Puffin Produce Ltd was formed with financial support from the growers, government and, to fully tap into the supermarket sector, a large grower co-operative in East Anglia.

A managing director was appointed and the new company bought sizeable new premises at Withybush, Haverfordwest, where new grading and environmentally-controlled storage facilities were created.

Puffin Produce Ltd has grown from strength to strength and in 2014 underwent a £2.5 million expansion by creating a new cold storage facility at its Withybush site, adding a further 7,500 tonnes to existing storage capacity.

To cap it all, the European Commission’s protected food name scheme awarded the Pembrokeshire Early potato its protected geographical indication (PGI) status.

This puts Puffin’s Blas y Tir Pembrokeshire earlies up there with other top-quality products such as champagne and Parma ham.

What began as a project to salvage an ailing potato sector has blossomed into a very successful multi million-pound company packing over 35,000 tonnes of Welsh potatoes a year plus other local produce, and NFU Cymru is pleased to have been part of that process.