Potato News from Belgium

Scientists at the university of Ghent have developed a vaccine to combat potato blight, one of the most common diseases in potatoes.

Perfect seedbed preparation of the soil is crucial in potato cultivation. For this reason, AVR continues to develop not only its planting and harvesting machines, but also its cultivators.

The total potato area within the NEPG zone (EU-04) has been reduced by 4,7%. Potato area in EU-04 declines from 522.300 ha to 497.700 ha (-24.600 ha). There was a decrease in all countries, but most in Belgium and the Netherlands.

Europatat is part of an international consortium involved in the research project ADAPT (“Accelerated Development of multiple-stress tolerAnt PoTato”), which aims at developing new strategies to make potatoes fit for the challenging growth conditions of the future.

The Almond Company purchased a TOMRA 5C premium optical sorter which has been operating at its Madera, California facility for the past six months with excellent results.

Mathijs Peters, responsible for EU Corporate Affairs at PepsiCo was elected President of the European Snacks Association asbl (ESA) for a two-year term. He succeeds Dr. Rolf Nilges, Intersnack’s Director of Research & Development and External Affairs.

Declaración de Copa-Cogeca, Europatat, Euroseeds y Starch Europe sobre las nuevas técnicas genómicas en el mejoramiento de la patata.

On 10 June the European potato community virtually gathered for the Europatat Congress 2021. Under the slogan 'Stay
connected – new strategies for the potato sector'

It's easy to see a bruise on a person. Not so, on a potato. The bruises are under the product's skin and so not easily detected during processing. Science, however, has found a solution that gives the Belgian Colruyt Group a peek under potatoes' skins.

We can now confirm that INTERPOM will go ahead! From 28 to 30 November 2021, the global potato sector will be able to gather in Kortrijk Xpo, as it used to do in the past.

In April '21, AVR, manufacturer of a full range of machinery for the cultivation of potatoes, lent the services of its newest, cloud connected Ceres 440 planter to the Potato Europe fair organisation.

Leading French potato producer PARMENTINE has equipped its new line in Samazan with two optical sorters from TOMRA Food - one the TOMRA 5A, the other the Sentinel-II.

Dewulf and Agrointelli have announced that they will be working together to explore the benefits of using autonomous machines in potato cultivation. A first project will see the combination of the autonomous Robotti platform with a 4-row Miedema CP 42 cup planter.

Lamb Weston / Meijer's commitment to preserving nature, and its resources, while caring for neighbors contributes to their overall growth and success. These shared virtues and values are just another reason why their partnership with TOMRA Food makes for a perfect match.

According to Vandamme, mechanical cooling is an excellent basis for long-term storage of potatoes without loss of quality. In addition, cooling, in combination with 1,4SIGHT, is a suitable alternative to chlorpropham as a sprout inhibitor.

Good news for the potato sector: the European Commission has recently formally set the value of 0.4 ppm as the temporary maximum residual limit (LMRt) in potato (products).

Europatat, the European Potato Trade Association, is excited to announce that the 2021 edition of its annual Congress will be held on Thursday, 10th of June in a virtual format.

No one could miss it in the media last year: the COVID-19 pandemic hit the Belgian potato sector hard.