News on Potato Varieties and Seed from Europe

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.

Dutch innovative hybrid potato breeder Solynta announced that Peter Poortinga will join the company as Chief Executive Officer as per September 15.

The last 4 months was not easy going for the potato production in the NEPG region. But despite the difficult weather conditions, first yield estimates suggest a return to multi-year averages, with an estimated harvest of around 23 million tonnes of potatoes.

Princesa Amandine will participate in Fruit Attraction (from October 3 to 5 at IFEMA Madrid) and can be found at the stands of three of its partners, Udapa (10G06, hall 10), Ibérica de Patatas (5E06, hall 5) and Campotec (8C08, stand Portugal Fresh 2023).

Seed potato supplier Europlant Pflanzenzucht GmbH establishes a subsidiary in Spain to expand its market presence in the Mediterranean. Going forward, Europlant Espana Semillas S.L. will be responsible for the distribution of the modern and high-performance potato varieties in Spain.

Solynta's potato variety was the only one to survive the high late blight pressure in the field among three other commercial varieties planted alongside.

Agrico, Nedato and Leo de Kock announced the name of the new, independent cooperative of common consumption potatoes: PotatoNext. This joint cooperative marks an important milestone in the potato industry and will be the result of a close collaboration between the three renowned companies.

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.

The North-western European Potato Growers (NEPG) estimate the area of ware potatoes has increased by 2 to 3%. This is slightly higher than the record in 2020, when it was 522.000 ha for the EU-4 (NL, BE, DE, FR).

Europlant Pflanzenzucht GmbH presents itself with a new, modern brand image. A new logo, new colours and new fonts create a contemporary corporate identity.

You may think of a seed as tiny and insignificant. Don’t be fooled: its impact on global agriculture is immense. The seed industry is constantly balancing innovation with bringing value to growers.

Robert Voskamp of the Dutch company Rola Fresh said that he has never seen the potato market this hot.

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, announced the commencement of the issuing of grant approvals under the 2023 Scheme of Investment Aid for the Seed Potato Sector and Chipping Potato Sector.

Aunque en Barcelona (Mercabarna) se encuentra el hub de envasadores más importantes de nuestro país, lo cierto es que la comunidad no cuenta con una tradición de producción local de envergadura.

El declive productivo de Europa deja hueco para que las importaciones extracomunitarias se abran paso, especialmente en el segmento de patata temprana.

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