Potato News from Oceania

Australian supermarket chain Woolworths has confirmed a major potato shortage has caused the price of potato-based snacks to soar – resulting in 'insane prices' for a single bag of chips.

Australian supermarket Coles introduces purchase limit on frozen potato chips (French Fries) due to shortage

Timaru’s McCain vegetable processing factory in New Zealand is now producing french fries using a boiler system powered by woodchips instead of coal, seeking to minimise waste by 20 per cent.

Australian potato supplier, the Pye Group will, officially opened the largest potato packing facility of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere on Tuesday.

Global food processing and packaging solutions specialist, tna, has added the brand new tna auto-splice 3 to its packaging portfolio – making the ‘Perfect Pair’ alongside the tna robag ® 3e, which was launched in 2021.

AUSVEG has reviewed Global Trade Atlas import data to better understand: the changes in the levels of potato imports pre- and post-COVID, as well as
the changes in import levels over the last 12-months as growers have faced significant increases in costs of production.

Exports of frozen fries from Belgium and the Netherlands to New Zealand have more than doubled in the quarter ending July 2022. These exports will be arriving presently, given shipping lead-times.

Potato farmers in the Ballarat region are demanding a pay rise for their produce, claiming McCain Foods does not pay a fair price for the popular mealtime vegetable. Last season McCain Foods paid growers an average of AUD 0.33 (about USD 0.23)

Potato processor Simplot Australia has refused to budge on its second price offer to Tasmanian farmers for their potato crop this season. Farmers met on Wednesday night to discuss the impasse with the company.

Snack brand Pringles has had a change to the packaging of its 53g varieties, with the plastic cap removed and replaced with a foil laminate seal, made by Sonoco.

Farmers have rejected a second price offer made by food manufacturer Simplot for their potato crop this season.

Simplot Australia has announced an AUD 65 million (about USD 44 million) upgrade to its Bathurst manufacturing facility and acquisiton of farming land in the Central West region of New South Wales valued at AUD 40 million.

A NZD 5.6 million (about USD 3.5 million) project to eliminate CO2 emissions and reduce demand for heating fuel at McCain’s Timaru factory will soon use woodchips to make their frozen french fries.

Zerella Fresh was founded in 1936 (Virginia, South of Australia) and is since 2009 a part of the Pye Group family. Zerella is committed to being Australia’s leading supplier and marketer of fresh produce.

West-Australian Potato farmers are warning that growers will walk away from the industry as cost pressures make the staple crop unviable in Australia.

When is a potato not a potato? When it's a tuber of a gourd, according to Guinness World Records. A New Zealand couple who believed they had dug up the world's largest potato in the garden of their small farm near Hamilton

Developed by Freshlogic, the annual Horticulture Statistics Handbook includes the latest available data on 75 different categories across fruit, vegetable, nut, nursery, and cut flowers in Australia.

Colin and Donna Craig-Brown found the questionably large potato growing in their yard in November 2021. They even named the potato Dug and submitted their surprisingly large find to Guinness World Records (via Food & Wine).