Potato News from Australia

A national potato shortage in Australia is providing a boom for growers in far north Queensland.

n Australia the humble spud is in short supply, with the Tableland now the only place in Australia currently in season to harvest a potato crop.

Tasmanian potato growers supplying Simplot have reluctantly agreed to a AU$25 cut per tonne of potatoes grown this season.

A new potato variety will be appearing on retail shelves in Australia, Asia and the Middle East in coming months from the South Australian Potato Company

McCain Tasmanian potato growers supplying McCain have agreed on a price cut of $26.50 per tonne for this season.

Potato growers in the Ballarat region (South Australia) are continuing negotiations over pricing for the next harvest with the food processor McCain.

After a battle lasting almost 25 years, Western Australia's $45 million potato industry has been declared free of the devastating potato cyst nematode (PCN).

Another price cut in a contract settled yesterday between South East potato growers and major potato-processing company McCain Foods Australia has threatened to wipe-out the industry if the downturn continues, according to potato producers in the region.

In New South Wales, Australia, Matt Simmons can barely keep up with demand for the organic potatoes he and wife Sue grow on their 48-hectare farm on the Hawkesbury River.

AUSVEG CEO Richard Mulcahy said today that diseased potatoes had the potential to threaten the viability of the entire Australian potato industry if the Australian Federal Government allows potatoes to be imported for processing from New Zealand.

Potato growers who supply Simplot Australia’s Ulverstone potato processing plant have put their case for a four per cent price increase for the 2010/11 growing season, the equivalent of another $13 a tonne. Simplot has yet to respond to the growers’ p...

Scientists from Adelaide’s Flinders University found that the starch contained in cold, cooked potatoes would reduce the cancer risk associated with eating red meat, with increasing evidence available that a diet high in red meat can increase a person’...

Australian scientists at SARDI are making major strides in diagnosing potato diseases before the potato crop is planted.Watch ABC video on this topicAustralia’s $500 million-plus potato industry will benefit from new DNA tests that can quickly and accu...

Potato growers across Australia have been urged to protect the local industry from a major pest which has established itself in New Zealand. New Zealand potato producers have been coming to terms with the disease Zebra chip. The disease is seen as...

McCain Foods has told growers in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania it requires 10 per cent less potatoes for the 2010-11 season and wants to cut the price by AU$45 per tonne. A meeting of potato growers at Ballarat last week angrily rejected Mc...

Striking workers at the McCain Foods Ballarat factory in Australia were ordered back to work yesterday following a dispute over rostered days off. The strike started when workers walked off the job on Monday night after the company failed to come to ...

Potato growers in the Moorabool region (Australia, near McCain Foods Ballarat factory) say they could be forced out of business after McCain Foods planned a AU$45 a tonne price cut next season.   With McCain’s tonnage also set to be reduced by 10 per c...

Australian potato producers are feeling the pinch, due to an increase in processed potato imports from Europe, American and New Zealand. Since 2004, annual processed potato imports have risen 400 per cent, from $20 million to $109 million. Tim Heisse...