Catalogue description Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food: Eggs, Poultry and Potatoes Division and successors: Registered Files, Potatoes (PS Series)

Since the amalgamation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and the Ministry of Food in 1955, responsibility within the ministry for administration and policy relating to potato production has fallen within many divisions.The work of the Potato Branch, within the various divisions, has largely consisted of making arrangements for implementing the guarantee to potato producers under the Agriculture Acts 1947 and 1957, discharging the ministry's responsibilities for the Potato Marketing Board and liaising with it, general questions of supply and prices, and administrative arrangements for the importation of potatoes in time of short supply.

At the time of the merger of the two ministries, potatoes were dealt with in the Ministry of Food by a Potato Branch in Group E (Fish, Vegetables, Marketing and Distribution) of the Supply Department. In the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, potatoes became the responsibility of the Horticulture Production, Distribution and Imports Division. In 1957, responsibility passed to the Eggs, Poultry and Potatoes Division, and again in 1963 to Horticulture Division II. In 1972, the Eggs, Poultry and Potatoes Division was reconstituted, but in 1974 control of potato matters passed to the Marketing Policy and Potatoes Division. In 1989 this division was abolished, and control of potato policy passed to the Horticulture and Potatoes Division, which in 1992 had allied to it the Horticultural Marketing Inspectorate.