News on Potato Defects and Diseases from Oceania

Seed Potatoes in a Victorian cold storage unit have tested positive for the potato mop-top virus (PMTV).

Australia faces a potato shortage after its toughest season in a decade. Extreme weather in South Australia, the nation’s main potato region, cut yields, causing supermarket shortages. Mitolo Family Farms cites heat, cold, and drought as main factors.

Three years ago, 5% of Canterbury’s potatoes were being lost to a disease which threatened to shut down the industry. Now the pest responsible has been driven off thanks to Te Whare Wānaka o Aoraki Lincoln University researchers.

Nine Global Potato Industry Award Winners were honoured at the 12th World Potato Congress in Adelaide, Australia.

If you’ve been into a fish and chip shop in Australia in the last 12 months, you may well have seen a notice tacked to the wall about the impact of the potato shortage. Supermarkets, too, slapped temporary limits on frozen chip purchases.

By adopting integrated pest management (IPM) practices growers are not on their own, Australian entomologist, Dr Paul Horne, told Pukekohe potato growers at a Potatoes New Zealand research update breakfast meeting in late March.

The World Potato Congress is extremely pleased to present its next webinar on Tuesday, April 6, 2021/Wednesday, April 7, 2021, with Dr. Paul Horne, Entomologist, and owner and Director of IPM Technologies Pty Ltd., Hurstbridge, Victoria, Australia.

Two trials in Pukekawa, New Zealand, are showing some early promise for potato growers when it comes to greater control of the potato tuber moth, Phthorimaea operculella (PTM).

A joint Biosecurity New Zealand and Potatoes New Zealand response to the crop disease potato mop-top virus (PMTV) is being closed out, with industry taking the lead on long-term management.

On 10 May, a meeting was held between AuSPICA, members of the Tasmanian Certified Seed Potato Scheme (known as TasSeed) and invited industry representatives.

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.

Potato cyst nematodes (PCN) are quarantine soilborne pests that damage potatoes around the world, stunting plants and reducing yields.

The government of Western Australia has announced that it has succeeded in regaining market access for Western Australian potatoes in all of Australia, following the detection of tomato potato psyllid in February 2017.

The scale of the Potato Mop-Top Virus problem on New Zealand South Island potato farms has widened. Eighteen Canterbury farms are now on the suspect list, after the virus was first confirmed on two properties last month.

Biosecurity New Zealand is working with Potatoes New Zealand to respond to a detection of Potato mop-top virus (PMTV) in potato tubers in Canterbury. Though common around the world, it is the first time the virus has been found in New Zealand.

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.

A research project in New Zealand is determining if different field soils affect development of powdery scab on potatoes, and whether soil physical, chemical and/or biological characteristics influence this important potato disease.

In Western Australia, a surveillance program to assess if the last year detected tomato potato psyllid (TPP) carries the zebrachip disease pathogen (CLso), did not identify a single case of the pest - with over 10.000 psyllids tested.