THERE will be a number of potato growers who will be left with no opportunities to operate through the new corporate farming business, according to the chief executive of the Jersey Potato Export Marketing Board, Stuart Smith.

He said: ‘The new company will hold a monopoly over the Jersey Royal industry, and this gives rise to serious concerns.

We shall be investigating these with considerable urgency.’Mr Smith was referring to the news, reported in the JEP over the past few days, of the formation of a corporate farming business formed by the merger of around half a dozen major growers, and the merger into the same business of the two largest marketing companies, JPMO and Top Produce.The JPEMB, which was founded following a unanimous vote in the States in December 2001, exists as a statutory body to ensure that the Island potato industry works well together, and that there are always in place sensible and commercially transparent contracts between all parties.However, because of a legal dispute with JPMO and Top Produce, and a consequent stay placed upon its powers, it does not have much effect at the moment.