Potato News from Ireland

Kerry Group, the global ingredients &flavours and consumer foods group, today confirmed that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Cargill’s global flavours business. Cargill Flavor Systems with annual revenues of approximately US$200m is be...

Ray Coyle, founder of Irish potato crisp maker Largo Foods, is selling a 25 percent stake in the company to German snack maker Intersnack, the Sunday Times reported, citing an interview with Coyle. Coyle is selling a further 11 percent stake in the co...

A new study carried out by Oxfam, the international charity, has found that the potato is the most popular food stuff in Ireland.

Snack foods maker, Largo Foods, is to invest €2.6m in the expansion of its Co Donegal facility, Ireland.

There is unlikely to be a repeat of the bumper potato harvest last year which saw exports to Russia for the first time.

As of this morning, Tomra Systems ASA (Tomra, www.tomra.com) a Norwegian public company (quoted on the Oslo Børs: TOM), has announced that it is to wholly acquire Dublin based technology company, Odenberg.

Irish potatoes are being exported for the first time in decades following a bumper harvest here and poor growing conditions over most of Europe, the Teagasc National Potato seminar in Carlow heard yesterday.

Potato growers are fervently hoping for some rain to bulk up the main harvest.

Irish Scientists have warned potato farmers to be on alert for a new aggressive strain of potato blight called “Pink 6”.Stephen Kildea of Teagasc, the agriculture and food development authority, said the new strain could not be properly controlled by s...

Largo Foods in Ashbourne (Ireland) has taken on a further 36 workers at its Kilbrew plant and expects to create up to another 80 jobs by next summer with its new 'Tayto Fun Park'.The manufacturers of Tayto and Hunky Dory crisps have reported an 11 per ...

A compensation package was tonight revealed for farmers whose crops were damaged during the cold snap.Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith said potato and vegetable growers who suffered significant losses because of frost in January could recoup some fu...

Irish potato farmers are facing ruin because of the freezing conditions which have followed the heavy rain in November, the Irish Farmers’ Association has claimed.The IFA estimates that 20 per cent of last year’s potato crop will not be recovered, lead...

Iconic Irish potato chips [crisps] brand Tayto exemplifies the problems encountered by local brands in a globalised world. Savaged by rapacious retailers on the one side it is under relentless assault from multinational brands with far greater resourc...

Irish Crisp maker  Largo Foods expects to make a net profit this year in spite of sales in Ireland of its leading snackfood brands – Tayto, King and Hunky Dorys – remaining flat at about €76 million.“Our sales are up 27 per cent in the North, but in th...

Controlling blight is of paramount importance to all potato growers, whether big or small. Research over the past two years by Dr Stephen Kildea and others in Teagasc Oak Park has shown the type of blight Ireland is getting now is changing compared t...

What sort of bounty could possibly lie in piles of discarded potato peelings?“We have been interested in by-products for quite a while now,” says Dr Nigel Brunton, a senior research officer with Teagasc who works with phytochemicals derived from plants...

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) recently published a range of toxicological fact sheets. These factsheets aim to give a concise overview on topics such as Dioxins and PCBs, Acrylamide, Aspartame, Mercury, Lead, Cadmium, Tin and Arsenic, Myc...

Tesco last night insisted it was the world's "biggest supporter"of Irish food and drink producers after a group of farmers stormed a meeting of the supermarket chain's top managers yesterday.Around 30 potato growers burst into a meeting at a ...