News on Potato Cultivation from Oceania

As we wound our way down to Port Levy, New Zealand, although only an hour from Christchurch city, it felt a world away. The turquoise waters of the harbour as still as glass, under the mid-afternoon Winter sun.

One of Australia’s largest potato wholesalers, Mitolo Group, has been fined for entering into unfair contracts with growers.

Tasmanian potato growers say Simplot is not paying them enough for their vegetables, as they negotiate a new contract with the vegetable processing giant.

Australian potato growers keen to learn about the latest research for managing key pests and diseases on potato farms have an opportunity to listen to leading experts at a Potato Industry Research and Development (R&D) Forum in Melbourne this week.

The Latest Potatoes New Zealand Industry Volumes & Values

Researchers from Australia, Germany, Switzerland and the US have quantified the effect of climate extremes, such as droughts or heatwaves, on the yield variability of staple crops around the world.

Potato growers near Pemberton in Western Australia have been forced to leave more than a thousand tonnes of potatoes on the ground to rot because of oversupply and crippling low prices.

Potatoes New Zealand, the industry's governing body has made a commitment to ensure the quality of potatoes imported from New Zealand by Fiji will be of top quality.

The Australian Industry Association AUSVEG has published a Potato Growers’ Biosecurity Manual, a guide to farm biosecurity measures to reduce the risk of weeds, pests, and diseases impacting production.

Villagers of the Districts of Yawe and Tavuki (in the province Kadavu, Fiji) heard that the government was promoting potato farming in a select few provinces of Fiji and that Kadavu was one of them.

The price of potatoes in New Zealand has almost doubled in the last 10 years, according to Statistics New Zealand.

In Fiji, the Ministry of Agriculture is working closely with farmers around the country who are interested in potato farming. This year will be the first year farmers will be planting the locally obtained seeds.

Seed potato growers on Kangaroo Island - an island off the mainland of South Australia - are successfully adopting a new strategy to manage the aphids and thrips pestering their crops, taking on expert advice from agronomists and entomologists to adopt integrated pest management for these insect pests.

For almost 50 years, Bernie White has grown potatoes in the rich, red, volcanic soil of Trentham, the traditional potato patch in Victoria, Australia. Now he doesn't know if his farm has a future.

In New Zealand, a team of Lincoln University researchers is impressed with the results from a trial of a mesh cover that is used to protect potato crops from insect pests.

Potato producers in south-west Western Australia say the detection of the potato psyllid (Bactericera cockerelli) is a "serious blow" to their industry. The detection of the psyllid may put national and international exports in jeopardy.

Australia is experiencing a potato shortage because of flood-effected potato crops in the southern states.

With pesticide resistance rising in species of aphids which feed on potatoes and spread viruses, one of the best control options for growers battling these pests may be found in nature, free of charge: parasitic wasps.