Potato Europe 2014

PotatoEurope 2014: Europe’s largest Potato Industry Event

PotatoEurope 2014 will include Europe’s largest live potato machinery demonstration, where visitors will have the chance to see planting, lifting and loading over an area extending to nearly 30ha. PotatoEurope, which takes place on 3-4 September 2014 in Bockerode, Hanover, is organised by the DLG (the German Agricultural Society).

All the machinery and equipment, technical know-how and industry innovations the market offers for successful potato production will be on show, with over 200 exhibitors taking part. As well as static trade stands, more than 30 varieties will be visible in trial plots for farmers who want to see how each performs in the ground, and key industry topics will also be discussed, with focus being placed on crate handling, storage logistics and risk management in marketing.

The event also provides an opportunity to meet with professional colleagues from all over the world, with a staggering 46 countries attending in 2010 – the last time the Germany event was held at Bockerode.

Machinery demonstrations

Machinery and equipment will have centre stage at the event, covering potato planting, crop management, harvesting and storage. Spanning an area of almost 30ha, there will be a diverse range of potato planting machinery, with an impressive nine planting machines working in the field. There will also be a focus on gentle tuber treatment and lifting performance with 14 single, double and four-row potato harvesters, both self-propelled and trailed.

To expand on the importance of treating tubers gently and carefully, there will be various loading lines from a range of manufacturers, giving visitors live comparisons of speed, cleanliness and gentleness.

Marketing, risk management and logistics under the spotlight

As well as live demonstrations, there will be plenty of strategic subjects being discussed by both industry experts and producers, including achieving and retaining optimal quality in potato production, developments in potato breeding and the use of electronics across production.

Potato farming isn’t just about managing the crop in the field, and to further benefit growers’ businesses, PotatoEurope will play host to an information centre covering areas such as storage logistics and crate handling.

With over 600sq m of track and demonstrations occurring every day, farmers will be able to see practical solutions first-hand and evaluate which might suit their businesses.

These demonstrations will cover goods intake, crate filling, storage, warehouse management systems and retrieval from storage. Throughout these processes, how to optimise labour and business management operations in potato storage will be the overriding theme. There will be plenty of technically innovative ideas for improving these processes.

With marketing becoming ever more crucial in all farming businesses, there will be a seminar titled “Marketing under control – Risk management in practice’. This will include practice-driven professional information from prominent industry speakers examining global trends in potato production, the initial forecast of market developments in Germany in 2014 and possible ways of managing risks and securing revenues.