If you were listening to or watching the news this morning, you may be aware of a story that did the round on the major broadcasters.

Britain is flooded in potatoes.

Normally we’d say this is a good thing: It is National Chip Week after all and therefore we need a healthy supply of spuds. Plus it’s nearly the weekend and there is nothing better than a handful of roasties to go with a Sunday Roast.

The average yield across the main European producers topped fifty tonnes per hectare for the first time recently. In Britain some farmers estimated their harvest to be in excess of 5.5 million tonnes, a three year high.

“Two seasons of over supply are causing great pain for our potato growers,” said the chairwoman of the Potato Council, Fiona Fell.

“A favourable growing season in 2014 resulted in a 5.7m tonne crop, which was 3 percent up on the previous season.

“The result is extremely uncomfortable and very challenging for our grower base,” Mrs Fell added.

But the fact is this isn’t a good thing. As a nation we’re turning away from the humble potato at the exact time that farmers across Europe are unearthing bumper harvests.

You might be able to boil them, mash them and stick them in a stew, but that doesn’t appeal to a sizeable amount of the population that have cleared potatoes from their weekly shopping list. Whether it is because of latest diet trends, the rise of superfoods or any other one of a myriad of reasons, we’re buying less and less.

We thought this day might never happen, but we’re left wondering “are potatoes really going out of fashion?”