News on The Potato Supply Chain from the Americas

Three words can sum up the increasing popularity of sweet potatoes in the foodservice industry: sweet potato fries.They’re stars on restaurant menus across the country, and some fine dining establishments are pursuing different fresh-cut angles and co...

The United States Potato Board (USPB) grower membership elected new leadership during its Annual Meeting held in Denver, CO, March 10-13. The News release lists the leadership for the coming year by section.

The National Potato Council (NPC) is calling on the Obama Administration and Congress to either reinstate the funding required to continue the pilot program allowing Mexican trucks into a limited area within U.S. border states or to quickly develop an ...

Idaho potato growers have agreed to contract modifications with major processors in an effort to break an impasse with Lamb Weston, a division of ConAgra Foods.Producers voted Tuesday, March 17, to approve changes in the 2009 contracts during a meeting...

Fruits and vegetables - including potatoes- are the most common items on the list of 90 products hit with tariffs as of today, as Mexico retaliated against a U.S. decision to block Mexican trucks from traveling north of a commercial zone along the bo...

Renal specialists have called for clear labeling on products that use potassium chloride as a salt replacer because it could pose a hidden risk for dialysis patients. Potassium chloride has been seen as a potential candidate for salt replacement becaus...

Maine potato growers are thriving thanks to a late blight spraying advice offered by the University of Maine's cooperative extension program.

Leaf samples taken last summer by provincial potato specialists and ag chem firm Bayer CropScience throughout Canada show "widespread"presence of fungi that have mutated to resist the fungicides used most often to control them.The sampling pr...

Competition and market access are the two biggest issues facing the potato industry as it tries to expand exports.“We had been benefiting from having a weak dollar, but that has also made the cost of international programs higher,” said Bart Connors, ...

Boeren in de Andes houden de genetische variëteit van de aardappel in stand door soms wel honderd verschillende lokale cultivars te verbouwen. Dat stelt promovendus ir. Stef de Haan, die tussen 2003 en 2006 veldonderzoek deed bij acht boerengemeenschap...

The potato industry needs innovation to create a long-term rise in demand, U.S. Potato Board President Tim O’Connor said at the group’s annual meeting.“There’s a difference between increasing demand and just getting a temporary sales bump,” O’Connor sa...

New Zealand’s International Aid and Development Agency (NZAID) is a relatively recent but highly valued partner of the International Potato Center (CIP) (...) NZAID is currently providing support for a CIP research and development project in Latin Amer...

The Canola Council of Canada (CCC) today announced a new wave of investment - $350,000 - into research on the role of canola in the prevention and treatment of heart disease and diabetes.The announcement of funding under the Canola Product Research Fun...

A small group of New Brunswick potato industry experts led by provincial Agriculture and Aquaculture Minister Ronald Ouellette is in Cuba this week for a follow-up on seed potato exports and to evaluate trials of different varieties of seed potatoes s...

Potatoes are for more than just french fries. With the federal government's aid, a nation-wide network of researchers co-ordinated from Fredericton is hoping to develop new uses for spuds - and help Canadian farmers cash in. The federal government is i...

In a case of recent success being no guarantee of future success, potato industry officials are trying to get a message through loud and clear to growers: Don’t plant more spuds than last year.Even keeping acreage right where it is, they say, could be ...

When potato producers plant their seed this spring, they’ll have three new varieties to choose from: Alpine Russet, a very high-yielding, medium- to late-maturing processing potato that has a natural dormancy rivaling Russet Burbank. It can be stored...

The old pattern was that fresh potato growers made healthy profits every sixth year (1989, 1995, 2001). In most other years, according to my research, growers either lost money or broke even.After the 2001 crop was marketed, prices fell for four consec...