News on The Potato Supply Chain from United Kingdom

The Syngenta BlightCast system will give growers and agronomists a five-day advance warning of localised blight risks.

Until now substituting artificial fertiliser with livestock manures for potatoes has been a fairly unscientific art. This year a trial is taking place to assess the potential for significant cost savings.

A new institute to help farmers produce more efficiently and an updated software ‘tool’ that enables farming and food industries to calculate their carbon footprint are launched this week.

Both the ‘Grow Your Own Potatoes’ and ‘Cook Your Own Potatoes’ projects from Potato Council are making an important contribution to the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) Education Strategy 2012-17.

The price of potatoes is expected to soar because the wet weather is delaying planting and slowing down harvests in Britain.

The British Potato Trade Association (BPTA) last week launched revised terms and conditions surrounding the sale and purchase of seed potatoes, providing growers with much-needed confidence that claims for contamination will be dealt with effectively.

A major corruption case in the potato industry has kicked off with guilty pleas from a former Sainsbury’s buyer and a former executive at potato supplier Greenvale.

If you are a potato grower in Scotland then you may now start to wonder what you have done wrong in the world.

A Sainsbury’s potato buyer accepted £5 million in corrupt payments from a key supplier, staying at Claridge’s and taking luxury holidays in return for a lucrative contract.

The British Potato Trade Association (BPTA) will launch revised terms and conditions surrounding the sale and purchase of seed potatoes on May 1 2012, providing growers with much needed confidence that claims for contamination will be dealt with effectively.

Growers could start seeing the benefits of the potato genome being sequenced within the next decade, with varieties bringing new traits such as PCN resistance or improved tuber shape.

Thousands of pupils across the South East and East of England will have the chance to understand more about where their food comes - thanks to help from fresh produce experts Fenmarc.

Practical solutions for efficient potato storage and maximising marketable yields will be some of the topics on the agenda at World Potato Congress 2012 (May 27-30, Edinburgh).

According to independent potato specialist of Root Crop Consultancy Howard Hinds, Alternaria has become much more of an issue in UK potato crops, with severe infections being experienced in susceptible varieties such as Markies.

Fenmarc, one of the leading fresh produce suppliers in the UK, has been shortlisted for Packer of the Year in the Re:fresh awards.

The success of Standen-Pearson ‘QUAD’ potato planters for the establishment of salad crops is well recognised around the world.

Emergency action has been taken by a European Commission committee to stop the spread of a beetle which has the potential to damage British potato production.

Fresh produce supplier Fenmarc in the UK is set to source all its electricity from renewable energy following the successful commissioning of a local Anaerobic Digestion plant.