Potato News from Idaho

Lamb Weston now provides restaurant operators in North America with a tool to find out where the potatoes that become their fries originated and then share that information with their customers.

A group of 18 Idaho Potato farmers that say they have been negatively affected by the Pale Cyst Nematode (PCN) program filed an administrative lawsuit against the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and the Idaho State Department of Agriculture on Tuesday.

The 13 major potato States held 130 million cwt of potatoes in storage April 1, 2015, up 9 percent from April 2014.

Southern Idaho Potato Cooperative growers have agreed to a contract that slightly reduces potato prices but requires processors to accept at least 90 percent of their 2014 acreages with individual farms.

Settlement negotiations are apparently ongoing in the federal potato price-fixing case that wholesalers, retailers and consumers filed six years ago against United Potato Growers of America and others.

Potandon Produce LLC announces the return of their highly successful and popular Mini Potato Display Shipper for the 2015 spring/summer selling season.

The first line of J.R. Simplot Co.'s genetically modified potatoes has been cleared by the Food and Drug Administration as safe for human consumption. The voluntary FDA safety review found that the potatoes are as safe and nutritious as conventional potatoes.

The first potato line ever launched under the Potandon Produce ™ brand name will soon be available.

Idaho is currently confronted with the unusual situation that large Russet potatoes are far more expensive than small Russets and the price gap is only increasing.

Levels of zebra chip, a crop disease in potatoes spread by potato psyllids and caused by the Liberibacter bacterium, were down signficiantly in the Pacific Northwest.

A former Potato Growers of Idaho executive director believes Idaho’s capacity to produce and pack potatoes has outgrown the market, at the expense of growers.

Officials with Idaho’s pale cyst nematode eradication program say they’ve discovered three more infested fields totaling 994 acres since October, including two fields that had previously been deregulated from the program.