News on New Potato Varieties from the United States

The success of the potato industry is built on growers’ ability to introduce new potato varieties that meet market demands. For example, when snack-size bags of potato chips were popularized, the industry responded by breeding smaller potatoes for smaller chips to fit into the bags.

Wisconsin yellow potato harvest is underway at Alsum Farms in Arena, Wis. with the first potato loads being washed, graded and packed for fresh market delivery to distribution centers and retail grocers the first full week of August.

New potato varieties bred by the Texas A&M Potato Breeding Program could enter the french fry market before long, said Isabel Vales, Ph.D., Texas A&M AgriLife potato breeder in the Department of Horticultural Sciences

The most recent potato variety to join the list of approved McDonald’s potato varieties is the Dakota Russet, developed at North Dakota State University by Asunta Thompson

Swisspatat adds early potato variety Colomba as a new entry to its 2022 variety list in order to strengthen the supply of early season firm-skinned, firm-cooking potatoes (green line)

The University of Idaho is close to opening a new Seed Potato Germplasm Laboratory, which is the place where most Idaho potatoes are 'born'.

The USDA's National Institute of Food & Agriculture (NIFA) recently awarded four Potato Research grants  totaling USD 2.6 million  as part of their Special Research Grants program.

Pennsylvania has more potato chip manufacturers than any other state in the United States. Consequently, Penn State's potato research program is focused on potatoes for the production of potato chips.

Don Flannery, president of the Maine Potato Board, is not calling it a record year — yet. But with over 80 percent of this season’s potatoes out of the ground, the longtime industry expert said yields are shaping up to be above average.

Tubers have battled various scourges for about 10,000 years, as well as an unpredictable climate that can cause unseasonable frost damage to crops every year.

Dave Holm was destined to work with potatoes. He was raised on a potato farm in southeast Idaho, where his dad and grandfather instilled in him a love of one of the world’s most important crops.

El agricultor Peter Imle intenta reducir a la mitad su cantidad de cromosomas para abrir el camino a muchas nuevas variedades con características más útiles.

Two University of Maine researchers, Greg Porter and Han Tan, are part of a team of plant geneticists and breeders working to develop tools that will help Maine scientists and farmers become more efficient in bringing novel, improved potato varieties to market.

If you are living in Michigan or nearby, Purple potato chips could be on shelves at a grocery store near you this holiday season, thanks to a collaboration between Michigan State University researchers and Traverse City-based Great Lakes Potato Chip Co.

Plant breeders and geneticists of Cornell University have released more than 50 potato varieties since 1908. Now they are expanding their efforts to make more wild potato seeds available to potato breeders around the world.

NC State grew the North Carolina sweet potato industry into a global powerhouse. Now we're leading the effort to breed sweet potatoes that could provide economic opportunities and better nutrition for people in African countries. (Courtesy: Bill Krueger)

David Douches, a professor in the Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences and director of the MSU Potato Breeding and Genetics Program, has been at the forefront of the potato’s transition as people get more adventurous with their eating habits.

The Caribou Russet, a potato variety developed by the University of Maine and available since 2016, sees an increasing market