News on The Potato Supply Chain from United Kingdom

Jersey Potato exporters were able to negotiate a better price from UK supermarkets this year to help cover rising costs but blight and poor weather meant it was still a difficult season.

Restrain, the world’s leading provider of ethylene-based sprout control solutions, has announced the appointment of Dr. Benedikt Cramer as its new Managing Director, while current MD Dirk Garos will take up the new role of Strategic Director.

Gordon MP Richard Thomson has welcomed confirmation from DEFRA that exports of seed potatoes from Scotland to Northern Ireland can restart from September 30, but has reacted with disbelief that the UK Government hasn’t raised the issue of exports to the EU since March.

New E-series reel irrigators from Bauer have several improved features to make operation and maintenance easier while maintaining the product’s outstanding reputation for strength, performance and durability

B-hive Innovations, a cutting-edge, agri-tech research and development business is embarking on a new collaborative programme that aims to reduce the risk of potato bruising and develop technologies that could reduce supermarket waste.

A biostimulant brand that is increasingly popular with potato growers will make its debut at this year’s British Potato show in Harrogate. Algifol, which is a seaweed-based biostimulant, will be on stand 123A in Hall 1 at the November event.

Trimble (NASDAQ: TRMB) announced the release of its flexible API for the Trimble Agriculture Cloud, an industry cloud that streamlines farming operations.

The UK potato sector has been going through a better spell this year, but it did take a long time for the potato shortage to feed back to growers as there was still crop from the previous year on the market and the prices didn’t increase until around mid-May.

Agristo is now a good 2 years into the finalization of Brexit. The French Fry company can look back up to this day and safely say Agristo has done everything to uphold one of its core values, which is to service and unburden their clients in any way possible.

Extreme weather incidents are serving to rock Europe’s potato industry to its very foundations. Last year was actually the second warmest year on record in Europe. The drought conditions resulted in a dramatic downturn in overall potato output.

CNH Industrial and ONE SMART SPRAY, a joint venture between Bosch and BASF, have signed a collaboration agreement to integrate the latter’s advanced spraying system within CNH Industrial’s agricultural brand product portfolios.

Extreme weather events pose a significant challenge to potato cultivation. Heat and drought stress reduces productivity, causes physiological defects in tubers, and damages crops.

A new predictive method has shown a way to better select parents for new potato varieties, offering a blueprint for better potatoes and a way to speed up the production of higher yield varieties.

HZPC UK, a member of the Royal HZPC Group, a leader in potato varieties and seed production for the entire potato industry in the UK, announced the acquisition of TLC Potatoes, one of Scotland's leading minituber producers.

Defra and UKRI, as part of the Farming Innovation Programme, recently announced funding for 'Potato-LITE' – a multimillion pound project over four years

From melting glaciers and flooding to drought, rising global temperature is affecting agriculture in many ways. Potato production is also taking a hit.

Ground-Sensing technology TuberScan - developed by Agri-tech business B-hive Innovations and partners - is entering its final phase of testing both overseas and now in the UK following the start of this year’s weather-delayed potato growing season.

Following the success of last year’s demonstration programme, GRIMME UK is once again giving people a chance to see the GL 420 Exacta potato planter in operation.