News on The Potato Supply Chain from Northern America

Wild potato germplasm that offers resistance to some major potato diseases has been identified by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists.

On Thursday, May 10th the EPA announced that it would begin phasing out all uses of the organochlorine pesticide endosulfan. According to the Agency the pesticide is particularly harmful to both workers and the environment.

Científicos del Servició de Investigación Agrícola (ARS) han identificado germoplasma de una especie silvestre de papa que ofrece resistencia a algunas enfermedades principales de la papa.

After 15 months, there’s been no change in lifting a retaliatory tariff placed on U.S. frozen potato imports. During that time, U.S. potato shipments to Mexico declined by 50 percent, according to the Washington State Potato Commission.   But Canadian ...

A fungus that could seriously damage Manitoba's multimillion-dollar commercial potato industry has been spotted at commercial nurseries, Manitoba Agriculture says. The provincial agency has issued a warning to residential gardeners after "late b...

Irving-owned Cavendish Farms is making arguments before a tribunal in the hopes of overturning an order that would force it to sign contracts with farmers before planting season. In 2008 and 2009, farmers were frustrated by delays from the company th...

The Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit focused on public health, scoured nearly 100,000 produce pesticide reports from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to determine what fruits and vegetables we eat hav...

Global Potato Tours is organizing its first international tour, scheduled to take place June 27 - July 4, 2010 on the largest potato producing province of Canada - Prince Edward Island. Tour members will be introduced in person to many individuals invo...

Canada exported 14.0 million cwt of potatoes and potato products during the January-March quarter. According to the editor of North American Potato Market News (NAPMN), Bruce Huffaker, that fell 1.7 million cwt short of the 2009 pace, a 10.7% decline. ...

When a major South American pest infests potato tubers, the plant produces bigger spuds, reports a study by Cornell, University of Goettingen and National University of Colombia researchers.The secret is in the spit, write the researchers online in the...

Farmers across Aroostook County are taking full advantage of a stretch of dry weather to get this year’s crop in the ground.   “A majority of the farmers will have 85 percent of their crop in by this weekend,” Timothy Hobbs, director of development wit...

Worldwide, late blight is rated the worst of potato diseases. Intermittently since the 1990s, spores have turned up in commercial fields of Idaho, Washington, California and Oregon. When the spore is present it reproduces like a wildfire in cool, mois...

Processors in Idaho and Malheur County, Oregon used 6.90 million cwt of 2009 crop raw potatoes during April, up 5.5 percent from April 2009. Processors in Idaho and Malheur County, Oregon have used 56.1 million cwt of 2009 crop raw potatoes to May 1, ...

Developing a chemical attractant to monitor and manage the potato psyllid is the goal of a new cooperative agreement signed in March between the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and the University of California (UC) at Riverside.

Six out of ten American consumers say they are eating healthier (34% much/26% somewhat) since the recession began in 2008, and a majority of consumers (51%) say they have also tried to get fitter to better withstand the pressures of the recession.The L...

Growers of processing potatoes in Manitoba have approved a deal with McCain Foods which will see production drop by 12 percent, with prices down around 15 percent. Gary Sloik, general manager of the Keystone Potato Producers Association, says growers w...

On the heels of the buyout news from Rubio’s Restaurants Inc., Keybanc Capital Markets analyst Brad Ludington has offered up three possibly tantalizing meals for the next hungry private-equity firm. Ludington said in a report Wednesday that he is con...

The Prince Edward Island Potato Board said it is disappointed that Cavendish Farms is appealing a new mediation and arbitration rule put in place this year. Under the Potato Board order, contracts must be worked out between Island potato processing p...