News on Industry Associations from Belgium

Europatat appoints a new board, including Jos Muyshondt as President, Domenico Citterio as vice-president and Gilles Fontaine as treasurer.

Europatat and Freshfel Europe will jointly celebrate their first common annual meeting on 2 June 2016 in Brussels.

The remarkable growth of the Belgian potato-processing sector in the past few decades has continued in 2015.

The Europatat Congress 2016 will take place in Brussels (Belgium) on 1 & 2 June 2016, under the slogan “Not business as usual!”

EU and US negotiators were meeting this week in Miami, USA for the 11th round of Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations. Negotiations on tariffs and quotas could have serious implications – either positive or negative - for the agricultural and primary food transformation sector as markets would open up.

Romain Cools, secretary of the Belgian Potato Processors Association Belgapom expresses his views on the free potato market.

Starch Europe (formerly AAF, Association des Amidonniers et Féculiers) announced its support for the European Commission’s Communication for a European Industrial Renaissance at an event held in Brussels October 15.

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

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.

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

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.

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”.

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.

EUPPA, the European Potato Processors’ Association, is organising in Brussels its 1st Congress for the processed potatoes’ sector on 16th May 2013 in Brussels, which will be also an opportunity to celebrate the 50th anniversary of EUPPA.

Based on a survey among 123 of its members, the Belgian organisation PCA expects an 8% increase in the potato acreage in Flanders for the main crop, as well as an increase in the acreage of early potatoes of 7.5%. Potato farmers were expressing their p...