Potato News from Europe

Robert Graveland, HZPC research, Metslawier: ‘Marker-assisted classical breeding is going to change a lot in the range of varieties over the coming ten to fifteen years.’

Colm McDonnell, IPM, Deinum: ‘We feel an obligation to produce varieties that can be grown in an environmentally friendly way.’

Sjefke Allefs, Agrico Research, Bant: 'As soon as a French-fry manufacturer accepts a variety as a raw material, things move fast.'

Jaap Brondijk, Stet Holland, Emmeloord: ’The point is to achieve significant improvements and not to have more of the same.’

Jacob Eising, Den Hartigh, Emmeloord: 'For growers, it's important to offer harvest and quality assurance.'

David Murdie, Potato Manager at GPS Potato Breeders, Angus: ‘As Scottish growers, we focus mainly on the home market.’

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.

British potatoes have been delisted from a number of lines in Poland’s largest supermarket due to fears of a no-deal Brexit, according to a large UK potato exporter, which has had to cancel orders with its growers as a result.

Dirk Stellingwerf, Schaap-Holland BV, Biddinghuizen: ‘There’s always room for new French-fry varieties, as long as it’s a 2.0 or 3.0 version of existing ones. The demand for this is growing especially now...'

A punto de que finalice la campaña de patata en Castilla y León, Patatas Meléndez, empresa líder en España en este sector, estima que este año ha procesado un 12% más de este tubérculo que la campaña de 2018.

Del 10 al 20 de octubre Burgos enalteció su patata. Alrededor de 50 establecimientos compitieron por cocinar en sus fogones la mejor tortilla de patata de la ciudad. Se trató de la sexta edición de este concurso.

TOMRA exhibits the TOMRA 5A, its avant-garde model for potato sorting. Compac’s new UltraView inspection module maximizes Spectrim’s grading performance.

Gardemoen, Norway: A new state-of-the-art processing line for classic and coated French
Fries, with inauguration in mid-2020, is planned by Ferskvarehuset AS in Norway. Design
and equipment will be sourced from Rosenqvists Food Technologies.

The drought last summer has had a big impact on the European potato season. These challenges were also felt in Poland, as traders had to import potatoes to be able to meet the domestic demand.

La jornada técnica que inauguró la Festa da Pataca de Coristanco abordó temas como la retirada del mercado de productos como Clorprofam o Diquat o cómo el brexit afectará a los productores de toda España.

La prohibición de la UE del uso del antigerminativo clorprofam es desastrosa para los exportadores holandeses de patatas, según comenta Teun Paarlberg, de la exportadora holandesa G. Sevenhuysen VOF.

PARENTS who struggle to get little ones to eat any veg might want to head down to Iceland as it's going to be selling UNICORN-shaped potato pieces. The crispy treats have been created by McCain and will be sold exclusively in store and online at Iceland.

Leading potato and vegetable handling equipment manufacturer, and sponsor of the BP2019 British Potato exhibition, Tong Engineering, will be kickstarting its 90th Anniversary celebrations at the UK’s largest biannual potato event in November.