The Green Party leader, Mr Trevor Sargent, claimed yesterday that he would be exposing an "imposter potato variety" being sold as Irish-grown Queens when the results of genetic tests he has commissioned in Britain become available at the weekend.
He said that the low-quality, high-yielding variety known as "Fanbo" had turned up labelled as Irish-grown Queens in one retail chain this week.
He had sent the "imposter variety" to the Huntington laboratories in Cambridgeshire for genetic testing so that a legal case could be taken to restore the reputation of Irish growers of Queens.
"I will be exposing these particular 'Queens' as having no royal blood, but just imposters dressed in false regalia," the Green Party leader said.
He claimed that one of the main Irish-owned multiple outlets was selling genuine Queens at €5.99 for a 5kg bag while the retail chain involved was selling "so-called Queens" at €4.59 for a 10kg bag.
The "scam" had been uncovered when growers of Queens in north Co Dublin became suspicious when the bottom fell out of the market for Irish-grown Queens. Over the past week, the wholesale price of Irish-grown Queens had fallen from €500 a tonne to below €350 a tonne.
Mr Sargent said that he had begun an investigation when growers told him that the Department of Agriculture and Food seemed to be unwilling or unable to do so. "What we are looking at here is a labelling scam where the packaging for top-quality Queens is being used to pass off an inferior product to the consumer."
A North Co Dublin grower said last night that the false labelling of the potatoes had caused major damage to the market for Queens and some growers were finding themselves unable to sell.
The Fanbo variety, he said, was also grown here in Ireland for processing, but the growers did not know if the potatoes being offered as Queens were being grown here or imported.
"We find it a bit astonishing that people handling potatoes professionally would not know the difference between Fanbo and Queens. It would be like mistaking a cow for a sheep," he added.