News on The Potato Supply Chain from Northern America

McCain Foods Limited announced its sponsorship of the United Nations (UN) International Year of the Potato 2008, at the official launch today in New York.The United Nations General Assembly has declared that the potato should be a major component in st...

A virus that crippled Prince Edward Island's potato industry for six months in 2000 may have returned. A single spud from a quarantined processing field near Kensington is being tested for potato wart, a disease that poses no threat to humans but leave...

Keith Esplin, executive director of Potato Growers of Idaho, on this years crop:    “I think as far as the crop, growers are pleased with what they found,” he said. “Yield and quality are better than thought.”Esplin said growers were expecting ...

Washington state potato growers have settled processing contracts with the J.R. Simplot Co. and H.J. Heinz Co. for the 2008 growing season.Simplot will pay growers a $240-per-acre "energy surcharge"under the new contract, Potato Growers of Wa...

Market perspective for organic potatoes. This project was conducted by Joe Guenthner and Gina Greenway in the Agricultural Economics &Rural Sociology Department at the University of Idaho, Jennifer Miller at the Northwest Coalition for Alternatives...

The Idaho Potato Commission is marking its 70th anniversary this year. Formed in May 1937 and originally (and only briefly) known as the Idaho Fruit &Vegetable Advertising Commission, the IPC has been actively promoting Idaho potatoes since its in...

Harvest time is here and Idaho farmers are busy digging up their fields.  But the hot weather we saw this summer has taken a toll on the local crop. The fields are pretty much dug up, with a few stragglers left behind.  While farms say the quality o...

An insecticide previously approved only for field corn and non-crop uses is headed for release next spring in potatoes, thanks to an integrated pest management project for wireworm control led by University of Idaho entomologist Juan Manuel Alvarez.Fip...

For the United States, the value of all potatoes sold from the 2006 crop is estimated at $2.98 billion, up 8 percent from the previous year.according to the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service, according to the USDA's National Agricultural...

For the marketing year July 2006 - June 2007 (MY07), the United States Potato Board (USPB) reports total US potato exports were valued at a record $1,000,252,000. On a volume basis, total exports were 1,108,391 metric tons (MT). This represents an inc...

As potato farmers nationwide dig up and truck in this year's crop, they're being held for the first time to guidelines aimed at preventing a food safety scare similar to the deadly E. coli outbreak in spinach last year. Besides watching the weather a...

Dr. Alexander Pavlista of Scottsbluff was elected president of the Potato Association of America in August, during the organization's annual meeting at Idaho Falls, Idaho. The association has more than 700 members, including scientists in university, ...

United Potato Growers of America issued an open letter asking farmers in Idaho to withhold some potato shipments to help shore up potato prices and prevent a shortage later this year. A hot growing season meant farmers dug up fewer potatoes compared...

Jim Tiede operates a farm with his son Alex in the Flat of Pleasant valley and the harvest has just begun. Jim said he didn't expect this year's potato yield to be as good as last year's record crop, but he was encouraged by what they found once they ...

Bill Brewer, executive director of the Oregon Potato Commission, said that potato growers are looking for a return to normal production in 2007. "So far, we're happy with the quality,"Mr. Brewer told The Produce News. "Potato growers are...

The Idaho Potato Commission announced initiatives for its 2007-08 season that include the release of two new commercials with spokesperson Denise Austin and the launch of a major cable television commercial campaign expected to make over a billion con...

Americans love their spuds, consuming 130 pounds per person annually. Now that culinary love affair could grow even more passionate with Agricultural Research Service (ARS) findings that some potato varieties are packed with health-promoting compounds...

Spuds are no longer the top agricultural commodity in Idaho as measured by annual cash receipts. Potatoes yielded that position to the dairy industry several years ago. But spuds are still a huge part of Idaho's agricultural economy, according to a Un...