Bluebird Foods Ltd

New Zealand potato chips manufacturer Bluebird says its parent company PepsiCo has invested over USD 66 million into the development of its Auckland factory, with a USD 26m-plus vending machine packing machine under construction.

Bluebird Foods (New Zealand) is recalling batches of its bags of potato chips after finding some may contain plastic pieces.

There's a major potato shortage in New Zealand and it's big enough that it's forced chip producers to temporarily stop production in the countdown to Christmas.

New Zealand Potato production in 2013, at 525,000 metric tons, was marginally (5%) ahead of 2012 production. t is likely planted areas in 2014 will be similar to 2013, with production in the range of 500,000 to 550,000MT.