Research

In Spain, a new potato organisation was established: "Foro Espanol de la patata", the Spanish Potato Forum.

Educating children about the importance of food, farming and healthy eating is a priority for Potato Council and the ‘Grow Your Own Potatoes’ project does just that. Now entering its tenth year, the project has reached over 2 million children to date.

According to Romain Cools from Belgapom it is a fact that the consumption of fresh potatoes by Belgian families is falling, but he expects the prices to remain high.

Soldier, Atlantic rower and motivational speaker, Rory Mackenzie, strives for success and is constantly searching for new challenges. Ticket holders to the sell-out BP2013 potato industry dinner, will get the opportunity to hear his inspirational story.

FoodDrinkEurope, the trade body representing Europe’s food and drink industry, welcomes the political agreement reached between the EU and Canada on the key elements of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).

In the United Kingdom, Members of Parliament (MPs) were treated to a day of potatoes, as Potato Council was sponsored to attend Parliament during Potato Week (7-13 October).

In the United Kingdom, a high profile advertising campaign has been launched to drive awareness and sales of named potato varieties.

More than 140 potato growers, advisors and agronomists met at Frederick Hiam Ltd, Tuddenham, Suffolk at the end of August, 2013, for Potato Council’s East of England Potato Day.

This week, Breeders Trust successfully reached an agreement with eight Italian agricultural cooperatives and producers that propagated potato varieties and marketed these as officially certified seed potatoes, without permission of the variety owner.

Yield trials of the Dutch Farmers Union VTA indicate a yield mid August 19 percent below the 5-year average.

Growers, agronomists and technical specialists turned out in high numbers at Potatoes in Practice earlier this month on the James Hutton Institute’s Balruddery Farm, Invergowrie.

Importers and growers looking to buy high health, high quality seed are warmly invited to visit Potato Council’s stand at Potato Europe (Emmeloord, The Netherlands, September 11-12, 2013).

In the aftermath of last year’s difficult growing and harvesting season, almost one in ten of Britain’s potato growers decided to call it a day, but, according to Rob Clayton of the Potato Council, the 2013 acreage of potatoes in the UK has not fallen.

Furious potato growers are going head to head with supermarkets and restaurants in a campaign to reclaim the "British New Potato".

Potato Council’s summer ‘Many Faces of Potatoes’ campaign has been hailed a major success, following positive industry and consumer feedback.

The North-Western European Potato Growers (NEPG) has issued an updated estimate of planted area for the 2013 crop (at the start of July).

The Guatemalan potato moth is wreaking havoc in potato crops in Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador. Control measures exist, but are toxic or financially out of reach. Now there's a promising alternative: a biopesticide based on a virus that infects the moth.

The savoury snacks industry assembled en masse to do business on 12-13 June 2013 as exhibitors, delegates and visitors from over 70 countries around the world met in Gothenburg, Sweden, for the 15th edition of SNACKEX.