Potato News from United Kingdom

As part of the Potato Council’s ‘Fight against blight’ campaign, the mapping of late blight outbreaks has demonstrated outgrade piles remain a significant source of blight in potato crops.

The Syngenta BlightCast system will give growers and agronomists a five-day advance warning of localised blight risks.

Until now substituting artificial fertiliser with livestock manures for potatoes has been a fairly unscientific art. This year a trial is taking place to assess the potential for significant cost savings.

A new institute to help farmers produce more efficiently and an updated software ‘tool’ that enables farming and food industries to calculate their carbon footprint are launched this week.

Both the ‘Grow Your Own Potatoes’ and ‘Cook Your Own Potatoes’ projects from Potato Council are making an important contribution to the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) Education Strategy 2012-17.

The price of potatoes is expected to soar because the wet weather is delaying planting and slowing down harvests in Britain.

The British Potato Trade Association (BPTA) last week launched revised terms and conditions surrounding the sale and purchase of seed potatoes, providing growers with much-needed confidence that claims for contamination will be dealt with effectively.

UK-based Spice Application Systems (SAS) has signed an exclusive trading partner deal with Canadian company ARBO Engineering. The move is expected to open up major new opportunities for SAS to increase sales of its specialist electrostatic systems wit...

A major corruption case in the potato industry has kicked off with guilty pleas from a former Sainsbury’s buyer and a former executive at potato supplier Greenvale.

McDonald's is a sponsor for the London Olympics _ and a British doctors' group says that's sending the wrong message in a country with ballooning obesity.

If you are a potato grower in Scotland then you may now start to wonder what you have done wrong in the world.

A Sainsbury’s potato buyer accepted £5 million in corrupt payments from a key supplier, staying at Claridge’s and taking luxury holidays in return for a lucrative contract.

The British Potato Trade Association (BPTA) will launch revised terms and conditions surrounding the sale and purchase of seed potatoes on May 1 2012, providing growers with much needed confidence that claims for contamination will be dealt with effectively.

Growers could start seeing the benefits of the potato genome being sequenced within the next decade, with varieties bringing new traits such as PCN resistance or improved tuber shape.

Thousands of pupils across the South East and East of England will have the chance to understand more about where their food comes - thanks to help from fresh produce experts Fenmarc.

Practical solutions for efficient potato storage and maximising marketable yields will be some of the topics on the agenda at World Potato Congress 2012 (May 27-30, Edinburgh).

PepsiCo has today announced it is hiring 110 employees in Leicester as part of a major £15.2m investment in its Walkers manufacturing campus. Applications are now open and PepsiCo is looking for motivated, passionate people with a great work ethic to ...

According to independent potato specialist of Root Crop Consultancy Howard Hinds, Alternaria has become much more of an issue in UK potato crops, with severe infections being experienced in susceptible varieties such as Markies.