The Chip Program completed another successful sale of material from the Fast Track Seed Program. The material sold from the program provides the chip industry with one of the only supplies of clean seed for commercial development, while providing funds back to the chip program. Varieties sold in the January auction, hosted by AIS Consulting, LLC, included: Michigan State University – MLS007-B, MSK061-4, and Cornell University – NY-138 (Waneta).
In the continued development of the Chip Program, a new process called Mini-Fast Track was implemented for the rapid advancement of raw material for the industry. The Mini-Fast Track is a new process bridging the gap between very small scale trials, such as the NCPT and USPB/SFA Trials, and the Fast Track Seed Program. Varieties entering the Mini-Fast Track will be cleaned for viruses and then entered as limited seed production.
The Chip Program is poised to implement a nutritional trial for the chip industry. This nutritional trial will look at several different chipping varieties which have potential for higher nutritional levels than current industry standards, such as Atlantic and Snowden.
The nutritional trial, hosted by Dr. David Douches at Michigan State University, would contain material from all national breeding programs. Nutritional analysis would review nutrient content prior and post processing, and report results back to the chip industry. The nutritional analysis request was submitted by the program process partners looking to the future of consumer markets with focus on better for you products.
Processor contributions are set to surpass the $1 million mark. In 2014 the 10 participating process partners once again showed their support of the chipping program by contributing financially for the 4th year in a row. AIS Consulting, LLC initiated this unique approach to funding by reaching out to the chip processor community in 2010, contacting as many as 40 processors and working with them to understand the benefit of a collaborative effort in the chip industry on common platforms. In 2014 the program will exceed the million-dollar mark in contributions, reaching an estimated $1,079,212 of processor donations. Today, the processor donations make up approximately 30 percent of the program’s funding. (Source: US Potato Board)
