News on The Potato Supply Chain from Belgium

The NEPG (North-Western European Potato Growers) have released a new potato production estimate for consumption potatoes in the leading 5 North-Western potato countries. If all potatoes will be lifted totally about 26.9 million tons will be harvested.

AVR is introducing its new Puma 4.0 at the upcoming Agritechnica fair. The four-row potato harvester is the successor of the popular Puma 3 and is now fully cloud connected.

Aunque todavía se tiene que empezar a recolectar, en la empresa belga De Aardappelhoeve tienen bastante claro que el rendimiento de las patatas no llegará a niveles récord este año.

Dutch-based company Aviko, one of Europe’s biggest producers of fresh, frozen, dried and specialty potato products, has announced a major investment in its production capacity in Poperinge, Belgium.

Growers, suppliers, grubbing demonstrations - everything to do with potatoes. That is what the latest edition of Potato Europe was all about. This year, this trade show was held in Doornik/Tournai, Belgium on 4 and 5 September.

The NEPG (North-Western European Potato Growers) estimates the
forecasted potato harvest 2019 between 27 and 27,3 million tons for the
5 leading potato countries. This is 3% more than the 5 years average and
12% more than last year.

TOMRA Sorting Food has introduced the TOMRA 3A sensor-based sorting machine for freshly harvested root crops, offering potato growers unrivalled sorting capabilities, dependability, and affordability.

On 4 and 5 September the international potato fair PotatoEurope 2019 will take place in
Tournai. That the fair continues to grow is demonstrated by the fact that there are almost
20% more exhibitors from 17 different countries.

At the upcoming Potato Europe in Kain, Belgium, agricultural machinery manufacturer AVR is presenting its new quick-change digging unit. As of 2020, this option will be available on all 2-row trailed AVR harvesters.

Dewulf, full-liner in machines for the cultivation of potatoes and root crops, will place particular focus on haulm processing, sieving capacity and roller cleaning during Potato Europe ’19.

The last potatoes were planted at the end of April at PotatoEurope’s demo site and until the end of May the participation demands continued to come in. With less than three weeks to go, time for an update!

Sensor-based sorter manufacturer TOMRA offers their insights on the impact of sorting technology on food safety in the Potato Processing Industry

ILVO, HOGENT and TRIAS in Belgium are hosting a Peruvian delegation to the Food Pilot (ILVO, Melle, Belgium) to get the production of so-called “tuntas” (freeze dried potatoes) in a small cooperative factory in the Andes.

AVR developed new receiving hopper for medium-sized agricultural holdings

The potato cannot be burned from the news. This week it turned out that Belgian growers are settling in northern France because the Belgian area is almost exhausted.

Based upon a provisional estimation of the NEPG (North-Western European Potato Growers) the area in the 5 largest potato countries increased to 609.000 ha of consumption potatoes, a 2.4% increase.

Since the humble precursor to modern potato first domesticated in Peru 10,000 years ago, the tuber has branched off into thousands of different varieties.

The NEPG (North-Western European Potato Growers) have estimated that the upcoming area for
consumption potatoes in 2019 will increase between 1 and 2 % towards almost 604.000 ha in the 5
main production countries.