Potato News from Canada

Lakeside Farms Ltd. of Greenfield was named the 2016-2017 McCain Champion Potato Grower for Florenceville-Bristol, NB during the 44th Annual McCain Growers’ Banquet held August 23 at the Northern Carleton Civic Centre.

Les Fermes LP Thériault & Fils of Drummond was named the 2016-2017 McCain Champion Potato Grower for Grand Falls during the 43rd annual McCain Growers’ Banquet held August 22 at Centre E.& P. Sénéchal

More than 300 people stopped by Fredericton Research and Development Centre's open house

Parkland Potato Varieties will be hosting is annual open day at the Crop Diversification Centre South in Brooks, Alberta on August 18th from 10 am to 2 pm.

Health Canada and Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) have completed the food, feed, and environmental safety assessments of the J.R. Simplot Company’s second generation of Innate® potatoes. The authorizations enable the potatoes to be imported, planted, and sold in Canada.

McCain Foods Limited’s Board of Directors has appointed Max Koeune to the role of President and CEO effective November 1st, 2017. He will succeed Dirk Van de Put who is leaving after seven years to become CEO of Mondelēz International.

Canadian Potato Processing company Cavendish Farms is investing in major potato storage upgrades at its New Annan French Fry plant, Prince Edward Island.

McCain Foods Limited has announced plans to expand its capacity at its plant in Coaldale, Alberta, Canada. This investment will bring additional production capacity to the french fry manufacturing facility, helping to meet continued strong demand for McCain products in the company’s domestic and international markets.

After a month of good growing conditions and positive reports amid sporadic news on disease potential, word from one of Ontario’s potato-growing regions is that roughly 1,000 acres of potatoes have been lost due to flooding.

An entrepreneur in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island has modified an automated restaurant french fry cutter to the North American market.

A couple of seed potato companies from Quebec, together with the Centre de Recherche Les Buissons (CRLB) have started an initiative to export high quality seed potatoes to Latin America and the Caribbean.

The Strang family of potato farmers in New Brunswick, Canada are getting into the liquor business by making vodka from potatoes. The first batch of Blue Roof vodka will be available in the farm’s storefront this week and in NB liquor stores sometime in the next week.

Orkla Food Ingredients, a subsidiary of Orkla ASA (OSE:ORK) has signed a license agreement with Renaissance BioScience Corp. to exclusively produce and sell Renaissance acrylamide-reducing yeast to food manufacturers in the European Nordic and Baltic markets, starting in Q3 2017.

Simplot Plant Sciences will not commercially launch its Innate GMO potatoes in Canada this year, despite regulatory approval and interest among potato farmers to grow these new potatoes

New packaging equipment at a Prince Edward Island Potato Packer, purchased with a loan from ACOA (the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency), is expected to help the company reach new customers.

The potato disease Dickeya can be detected by laboratory testing — but is there enough of it present to justify the higher costs? That is the question facing Canadian Seed Potato Growers exporting to the United States who are increasingly asked for the test.

Soybean producers are gearing up to plant soybeans that are tolerant to both glyphosate and dicamba herbicides. Potato growers should be aware that both glyphosate and dicamba drift can cause irreparable damage in neighbouring potato crops

East Point Potato 2009 Inc. is scaling up its operations in rural Prince Edward Island, Canada with the help of a CAD 500,000 federal loan.