Irish consumers may have to pay higher prices for potatoes later this year because of the severe damage to the early potato crop caused by frost earlier this month.
And soft fruit growers, especially those involved in growing cooking apples and early strawberry crops, are facing what appears to be a disastrous season if crops fail to recover from damage.
The frost caused most damage to the early potato crop which this year was three weeks ahead of schedule because of the mild weather in February and March.
According to Mr Jim Thornton, potato marketing co-ordinator of the Irish Farmers' Association, hundreds of acres of early crop potatoes in Dublin, Wicklow and Wexford have been destroyed by frost.
Dublin, he said, had taken the brunt of the frost, where 50 per cent of the crop of "first earlies", had been totally destroyed and there was severe damage to over 800 acres of first and second crop early potatoes.
"What we are expecting is that harvesting, which would normally begin around 15th to 20th May, will be delayed by three to four weeks and even then we are uncertain of crop prospects," he said.
He said that there will be more than enough old potatoes available for the Irish consumers but they would necessarily be more expensive than usual because of the storage costs involved.
"Potatoes are stored at 4 degrees centigrade to prevent them sprouting so they can be presented fresh to consumers and there is increased cost in this," he said.
Mr Thornton said that there is usually a fall-off in potato consumption in the early summer as temperatures increase and people turn to salads and other foods.
Mr Harry O'Brien, a soft fruit specialist with Teagasc, the farm and food development board, said the frost had been disastrous for cooking apple, early strawberry and raspberry growers.
"There has been widespread damage to buds but there is still a possibility that trees and plants may recover and we could have a decent crop. It's too early to say yet," he said.
"The damage was more severe in the North of Ireland where colleagues tell me that there is severe damage to the cooking apple crops," he said.