No-nonsense, no-frills news stories from around the world
Elea will host a webinar on Tuesday, September 27th during which participants will learn more about the company’s PEF Advantage systems and the benefits of raw product treated with Pulsed Electric Field (PEF) technology. Elea specialists will guide participants through the production process of chips and French fries – with a focus on the numerous benefits of PEF technology during each phase of the process.
When Brian Bailey signed the Queen’s condolence book this week in Brandon, Manitoba, the retired teacher added a special recollection: The time the Queen spent two days relaxing with his family on their potato farm. It was July 1970, and the Queen, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles and Princess Anne, was on the Centennial Celebration tour of Manitoba.
The prices of basic foods including chicken, vegetables, milk and potatoes have increased by up to 60% in local supermarkets in Britain over the last six months. According to a report by Joel Adams for Eastern Daily Press (EDP), a standard 2.5kg bag of white potatoes in both Sainsbury’s and Tesco are now an eye-watering 61 or 62% more expensive than in April respectively, and have shot up 51% in Aldi too. Norfolk potato farmers said retail prices continue to climb through the autumn.
The biggest single improvement in harvesters in the past few decades is full hydraulic control, available only over the past handful of years. Engineers at Lockwood Mfg reflect in this article whether you should be considering making a switch to a fully hydraulic harvester. They say while hydraulic control might seem like an optional luxury today, the results it can easily produce may be a processor-mandated necessity tomorrow.
The increasingly unpredictable climate is triggering a new set of challenges to the Scottish potato industry, where milder summers and winters are leading to an increasing risk of virus transmission in seed crops, says Donald Paterson, cereal and potato husbandry specialist at Scottish Agronomy. To tackle this challenge, Paterson says growers need to be looking increasingly to using Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies alongside plant protection products to maintain quality seed.
The seeds for a successful statewide potato growing program were planted Thursday at WVU Potomac State College, and participants are hopeful the idea will take root outside of the state. The college’s first West Virginia Spud Summit is designed to connect state and local business and agriculture experts with staff from the West Virginia Potato Chip Co., the maker of Mister Bee potato chips.
During the recent PotatoEurope event in Germany, more than 300 guests from Germany and abroad met on 7th September 2022 at Gut Rethmar to celebrate the 30th anniversary of EUROPLANT Pflanzenzucht GmbH, and to pay a tribute to Dr Heinrich Böhm, who is retiring. EUROPLANT and Böhm-Nordkartoffel Agrarproduktion GmbH (BNA) announced a merger to come into effect during the new financial year 2023/2024.
UK-wide potato supplier Branston is set to create 45 new jobs at its prepared foods factory near Lincoln after completing a £6m extension to the facility. The company has launched a recruitment drive to find new production operatives, quality controllers, technical administrators and forklift drivers after experiencing an increase in demand for its products.
A new study led by Texas A&M AgriLife researchers has revealed some resistance to zebra chip disease among certain wild species of potato. As Paul Schattenberg reports for AgriLife Today, the study of 52 wild potato species — of which one accession was resistant and three were tolerant to the disease — took place as part of an effort to identify novel genetic resistance to the disease, which affects potato production worldwide.
A two-year study by Boise State University and University of Idaho probes how wildfire smoke affects potato crops and seeks to identify smoke-resilient potato varieties. “Observations from industry started all of this. When we have had bad, smoky years, yields are down and processing quality is down. Our hypothesis is smoke exposure causes that,” said Mike Thornton, a professor in U of I’s Department of Plant Sciences.
Electricity prices have been the subject of significant debate across the UK lately. No more so than within potato production with suppliers facing price hikes of up to 400% to secure new supply contracts, says potato storage consultant Adrian Cunnington in his latest monthly bulletin, Synopsis. Adrian points out that producers are facing energy charges of up to 80 pence per kilowatt hour, against a history of paying under 20 pence.
McCain Foods has acquired Scelta Products, adding the Netherlands-based producer of frozen foods to its growing family of prepared vegetable appetizer product offerings. The deal represents a significant investment which, as McCain Foods says in a press release, ‘will fuel McCain’s growth and expansion in the frozen vegetable appetizer space’. McCain says it continues to look for opportunities to invest in acquisitions that align with its global leadership position.
After successfully registering ‘halloumi’ (a traditional Cypriot cheese) as a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) product, the government is now preparing an official request to register the island’s second most important agricultural product, the ‘Cyprus red potato’. The unique red soil in which much of the potatoes are grown, is said to give the tuber its earthy flavour.
The North Western European Potato Growers (NEPG) estimates that potato production in the NEPG zone (EU-04) countries will on average be down by between 7 and 11 percent, with Belgian and French farmers most affected. The heat waves experienced in Europe throughout the summer would also have caused some quality and storage issues. With very much higher input costs and higher risks linked to climate change and the war in Ukraine, there is uncertainty about the 2023 season.
Snow Valley Agriculture is one of the largest food and potato processing companies in China, with potato seed production at the core of its operation, also including the delivery of modern agricultural extension services. The company recently celebrated the opening of its third French fry processing line during a grand ceremony. The PEF unit that Elea supplied for cutting improvement, reduced oil uptake and enhanced product quality, has been the second Elea PEF system supplied to Snow Valley.
A new industry-led report suggests Canada’s farmers can likely only achieve half of the federal government’s targeted 30 per cent reduction in fertilizer emissions by 2030, as Amanda Stephenson reports for Canada’s National Observer. The report concludes that it may be possible to achieve a 14 per cent reduction in emissions from fertilizer by 2030, but that reaching 30 per cent is not “realistically achievable without imposing significant costs on Canada’s crop producers”.
In Tanzania, The Netherlands has been an important stakeholder in promoting and developing the production and use of the potato crop, as Jafari Juma reports for the Citizen. The Ambassador of the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to Tanzania, Wiebe de Boer, says with the availability of improved Dutch potato seed varieties, farmers have an opportunity to increase efficiency in farming which will trigger more investments and trade within and across the sector, creating an immediate and long-term impact on income generation.
Lamb Weston Holdings announced this week an expansion of french fry processing capacity in Argentina with the planned construction of a new manufacturing facility in Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires. “Our investment in a new french fry processing facility demonstrates our continued confidence in the growing global market for frozen french fries, and our commitment to serving our customers in Argentina and the broader South American market,” said Tom Werner, President and CEO of Lamb Weston.
Development of the UK’s new Seed Potato Organisation is ‘quietly making progress’ and it will be launching in the next few months, as Gordon Davidson, News & Online Editor for The Scottish Farmer, reports. Following a packed-out session at the Potatoes in Practice event, a co-operative is now formally being set up to support the British seed potato sector.
The PotatoEurope trade fair, which took place this week on 7 and 8 September, at the Rittergut Bockerode Estate in Springe-Mittelrode near Hanover, Germany, has confirmed its role as the premier international venue for potato professionals, the organizers say in a news release. With 8,000 visitors from 65 countries, the outdoor exhibition with technical program attracted over 250 exhibitors.
Queen Elizabeth ll, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, the nation’s figurehead and a towering presence on the world stage for seven decades, died peacefully at her home in Scotland on Thursday aged 96, as Reuters reports. Her death triggered reaction from politicians and officials around the world. And as Dan Wiggins reported earlier this year for MyLondon.news, the Queen was particularly picky about her spuds…
The southern Alberta potato industry continues to provide many opportunities in the region. “The potato industry continues to increase acres in southern Alberta, creating opportunities for local businesses,” said Jubs Bristow, Cavendish Farms agriculture vice president. With the new state-of-the art frozen potato processing facility opening in 2019, there is an increase in volume from 247 million pounds of potatoes to nearly 700 million pounds annually.
The potato harvest is underway in Canada and yields could be decent in 2022, but some in the industry are concerned about a shortfall of potatoes in Canada and the U.S. As Robert Arnason reports for The Western Producer, remaining stocks from last year’s crop are minimal, at best, and yields this fall could be average or below average in multiple states and provinces.
Met Éireann has said that a Status Yellow warning for potato blight is set to remain in place for Ireland until next week. The national forecaster noted that weather conditions conducive to the spread of the disease will remain across many parts of Ireland through to Tuesday (September 13).
‘Weed hunters’? No, it’s not a joke. It’s a real concept that aims to tackle a serious and costly problem for farmers and their crops – herbicide resistance in weeds. The technique is called “abrasive or projectile weed control”. Using a sandblaster, natural materials like corn grit, corn gluten meal, and walnut shells are “shot” directly at weeds. Researchers found this alternative to herbicides was an effective way of killing weeds.
At the PotatoEurope event in Germany this week, the new SL 919 store loader with “Quantum” infeed conveyor will be demonstrated in practical use. The store loader is equipped with a 900 mm wide conveyor belt and a CCI 800 ISOBUS operator terminal. The SL series store loaders can be used for storing and loading potatoes, onions, red beet, celery and bulk goods.
Farmers got a heads-up during a research session about a potentially damaging fungus that showed up in the Northern Plains this year. The disease, called “rubbery rot,” was seen in North Dakota and Minnesota this summer and was found in Wisconsin in 2019. ”It’s a new problem,” said Gary Secor, North Dakota State University Extension plant pathologist.
British potato crops have paid a heavy penalty as a result of this summer’s record-breaking temperatures and drought. First digs from this year’s Quantis heat-stress biostimulant field trials suggest yields may be over 30% lower in untreated crops. The total tuber numbers in marketable size grades have been on average 34% greater in the treated areas, reported Syngenta Technical Manager, Andy Cunningham.
