News on Food Trends from Belgium

Europatat, the European Potato Trade Association, announces the appointment of Raquel Izquierdo de Santiago as the new Secretary General of the association.

Belgian Potato packer Pomuni has acquired its competitor Potato Masters in order to scale up operations in a stagnant European potato market [Update: no, they did not]

With two months still to go before the opening of INTERPOM | PRIMEURS 2014, the event is already bigger than last time – and virtually fully booked.

The Dewulf group has reached a preliminary agreement for the acquisition of Miedema, the one to go to for development and production of modern technology for storage, sorting, transport and planting of potatoes.

Belgapom is partnering with research institutions to developed a platform to increase the efficiency of potato production, combining data from drones and satellites.

Mydibel Group, manufacturer of fresh and deep-frozen potato products and dried potato flakes and granules, has invested in the construction of 2 ha of photovoltaic panels - the largest industrial solar field in private hands in Wallonia

Europatat, the European Potato Trade Association, is pleased to announce the final programme of the annual Europatat Congress, in Brussels (Belgium) on 22-23 May 2014.

Based upon grower surveys in the 5 main potato countries in Northwestern Europe, the NEPG (North-western European Potato Growers) calculates with an area growth for consumption potatoes between 3,5 and 4% more.

Europatat welcomes the European Parliament plenary vote on plant health that results in more responsibilities for operators and a common sense on trade

With its annual exports of approximately 418,000 tons, Flandria is Europe’s biggest vegetable brand. You can get to know the products and sixteen fruit and vegetable suppliers at Fruit Logistica.

This year the Aardappelhoeve will be at Fruit Logistica for the first time. Bart Nemegheer, owner of the company, indicates that they could not stay behind.

Europe's second-highest court on Friday overturned a decision by the European Commission to allow the cultivation and sale of a genetically modified potato developed by German chemicals group BASF.

According to Romain Cools from Belgapom it is a fact that the consumption of fresh potatoes by Belgian families is falling, but he expects the prices to remain high.

Breeders Trust, an organisation set up by seed potato companies to enforce proper contributions by farmers for use of proprietary potato varieties, has sued two Belgian Farmers for infraction of breeders rights of potato varieties.

FoodDrinkEurope, the trade body representing Europe’s food and drink industry, welcomes the political agreement reached between the EU and Canada on the key elements of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).

Representatives from across Europe?s food supply chain have today announced the launch of a joint effort to tackle the major societal problem of food wastage via the publication of their Joint Declaration entitled, “Every Crumb Counts”.

McCain Foods and Pinguin NV have completed the sales agreement of the Lutosa division.

The Belgian potato processing industry has seen a spectacular growth during the last decades. The companies active in this sector have grown from 500.000 tons of processed potatoes in 1990 to 3,65 million tons of raw material in 2012.