Industry Associations

Potato Council’s One Voice campaign is fast gaining momentum, with people from all sectors of industry getting involved and doing whatever they can to help spread positive messages about potatoes.

The West Midlands Potato Day attracted a good crowd of industry visitors on 19 June when potato grower Jonathan Bubb of J.M. Bubb & Sons hosted Potato Council’s technical field day at Lynn South Farm, Newport, Shropshire, where they grow around 400 acres of potatoes.

In the United Kingdom the value of fresh potato category is growing with a 3.8% rise over the last year, while the volume of fresh potatoes sold has dropped by 8.0%. The Potato Council is figuring out what can be done about it.

A vision for the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) was outlined by the Food and Farming Minister George Eustice and the new AHDB chairman Peter Kendall when they addressed AHDB employees.

This week saw the Potato Council division of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) mark the 50th anniversary of the opening of its Sutton Bridge Crop Storage Research (SBCSR) facility, near Spalding in Lincolnshire, United Kingdom

Potato Council acts as a knowledge house for Government raising the importance of the potato. Two years since this work programme started there has been a real increase in knowledge about potatoes amongst parliamentarians with 83% now regarding potatoes as an important crop.

Potato Council, Horticultural Development Company (HDC) and the Commercial Horticultural Association (CHA) returned in force to the Fruit Logistica to build their promotion of seed potatoes from Britain and raise the profile of the diversity and quality of UK horticultural crops.

Potato Council’s latest campaign to encourage shoppers to trade up from generic whites to a named potato variety has been a great success.

Supporting the chipping sector is high on the agenda for Potato Council all year round, but with Chip Week (17 – 23 February) just around the corner, the team is more focused than ever on helping chips shops improve the quality of their chips and drive sales as a result.

Potato Council is calling on the UK industry to help promote the ‘Natural Goodness’ of potatoes, by applying for a new Potato Council car sticker which is now available to all its levy payers.

Potato yield increases in the United Kingdom have stuttered to a halt in a similar manner to cereals in recent years and experts believe improving the state of British potato-growing soils will be vital to drive yields higher again.

Following the successful first-time collaboration by the British potato and horticulture sector at Fruit Logistica 2013, Potato Council, Horticultural Development Company (HDC) and the Commercial Horticultural Association (CHA) return with their industries to this massive event in February 2014.

The potato industry flocked to Harrogate for BP2013, with organisers reporting a 20 per cent increase on the usual 6,000 attendance.

Chip Week has become one of the biggest awareness weeks in the calendar, but, as important as it is, it is still only one aspect of the work that Potato Council does to support the sector.

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.

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.

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.