News on Potato Stats, Trade, Prices from the Americas

El mercado mundial de la papa ha experimentado cambios profundos. Hasta principios de la década del 90, la mayoría de las papas se producían y consumían en Europa, América del Norte y los países de la antigua Unión Soviética. Desde entonces, ha habido un aumento dramático en la producción y demanda en Asia, África y América Latina.

Statistics Canada reported that potato farmers in Canada planted 342,602 acres (138 647 hectares) of potatoes in 2016. This is down 1.8% from 2015, continuing the overall downward trend of the past 12 years.

A federal judge in Mexico’s Northern State of Sinaola issued a decree that bans the import of fresh potatoes from the United States.

Debido a la venta ilegal de alimentos que afecta al país, los bachaqueros (personas que compran y revenden productos) tienen ahora como blanco a productores y comerciantes que desde el campo trasladan alimentos a las ciudades, y ahora son atacados en las autopistas para quitarles la comida.

Un juez federal de México prohibió el ingreso al país de papa fresca de Estados Unidos ante la posibilidad de que los plaguicidas utilizados en su cultivo generen daños al medio ambiente, a la biodiversidad o a la población.

La Asociación de Exportadores del Perú informó que Bolivia es el principal mercado para la producción de papa. Ingenieros agrónomos bolivianos dicen que hay déficit de producción cebollas y tomates.

The recently released U.S. International Trade Commission’s report on the potential economic impact of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) provides many examples of the benefits this free trade agreement would provide.

Congress is pushing the Agriculture Department to exempt groups such as Potatoes USA (formerly known as the United States Potato Board) from public scrutiny of their internal operations (Freedom of Information Act).

The low price of potatoes in the domestic market in Argentina has resulted in a good start for the export of Argentinian potatoes, with a significant increase in demand, mainly from Latin American countries like Brazil and Paraguay.

Fedepapa, the Federation of potato producers in Colombia rejected the repeated requests that the processing industry has made to import fresh potatoes because, according to Fedepapa, Colombia has enough supply.

The rainfall in November, December, and January in the western and central parts of Cuba made it impossible for Cuban farmers to achieve a crop yield similar to the one they got last year, when they harvested 120,000 tons of potatoes.

Costa Rica's Servicio Fitosanitario del Estado (SFE) has informed USDA's Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) that it will begin issuing import permits for US chipping potatoes beginning February 1, 2016.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries of Jamaica is to conduct research trials on 15 new varieties of imported Irish potato over the next three months, to determine their suitability for local conditions.

Based on a review of the recently released Trans-Pacific Partnership
(TPP) agreement text, the National Potato Council (NPC) strongly supports the trade deal reached with
Australia, Brunei, Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore
and Vietnam.

This year, potato yields should be slightly above average in the Canadian prairie provinces Manitoba and Alberta, but figures aren’t available because the harvest is only 10 to 15 percent complete.

In Mexico, Filiberto Cadena Payan, representative in Sinaloa of the Potato Product System, said that it was important for the state's producers to reduce their crop area to the 11,000 hectares allocated to this crop this year in order to continue obtaining the best possible results in the marketing of the potato crop.

USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) is changing the name of the Fruit and Vegetable Program to the Specialty Crops Program effective immediately. Because of the expansion of products covered, the program name is being changed to be more inclusive.

While the rest of the agriculture sector nervously eyes the oil melt-down, the french fry industry in Canada might actually be poised for a comeback