Potato variety Nadine has overtaken Cara this year as the third most popular variety planted in the UK behind Maris Piper and Estima. According to the British Potato Council's October 2001 potato planting estimates, Nadine acreage has increased to 8,247ha compared to 7,191ha last year overtaking Cara's 7,579ha this season.

'When Nadine first came out some eight years ago, the retailers were not so keen on it, but it seems to have proved itself since then,' said Guy Gagen of the BPC. However, not all retailers favour it throughout the season and Tesco requests it from suppliers only for the first part of the season before Christmas.

Nadine is a second early and a good general ware potato with good external skin finish and relatively low dry matter making it versatile and especially good for boiling. It is an earlier maturing variety than Cara.

Maris Piper and Estima still dominate production accounting for 32 per cent of planted area between them. Total planted area under potatoes this year in the UK is now estimated at 147,947ha, a 1.1 per cent decrease on earlier BPC estimates, but 1.2 per cent up on the final figure for 2000 and in line with the four-year average of 147,750ha for 1997-2000.