No-nonsense, no-frills potato news stories from around the world
The World Potato Congress Inc. is pleased to announce its March webinar with Dr. Marc Ghislain and Dr. Eric Magembe. The webinar is scheduled to be presented live on Tuesday March 21, 2023 at 10:00am EST (Canada/USA). The webinar is titled “Deployment of late blight resistant biotech potatoes in Africa”.
The twenty-ninth edition of the Latin American Potato Congress is scheduled to take place from March 28 to 31, 2023 in Puerto Varas, Los Lagos Region, Chile. The Latin American Potato Association (ALAP) and the Chilean Potato Association (ACHIPA) have jointly organized this event, which aims to bring together attendees from all sectors of the potato industry.
After two years of virtual meetings, the Northeast Potato Technology Forum is excited to be back in person for 2023. The meeting will take place on March 21st and 22nd, 2023 in Fredericton, New Brunswick. This two-day event will feature presentations from researchers from the Atlantic Northeast (NB, NS, PEI, QC and ME) working in potato research and agronomy.
The next Europatat Congress will take place on 5, 6 and 7 June in Gdańsk, Poland. The congress will be hosted by the Polish Potato Federation. Europatat organises its Congress every year in a different European location. Registrations for the 2023 Congress is now open.
TOMRA Food treated visitors to its stand at Fruit Logistica Berlin last week (Berlin, 8-10 February) with 3D footage of its sorting, grading, and packing solutions in action, and gave a presentation on the event’s Tech-Stage. The company illustrated how the food industry can benefit from Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning. TOMRA Food showcased solutions from both its business areas, TOMRA Fresh Food and TOMRA Processed Food.
HarvestEye is set to launch the newest version of its industry leading machine-learning driven root crops insights tool at Fruit Logistica, the world’s largest fresh produce trade fair. Fitting to harvesting or grading equipment, HarvestEye is a low-cost method to deliver performance data on the size, shape, quality and mapping variability of root crops, which is currently compatible with potatoes and onions.
Scotts Precision Manufacturing, one of the UK’s leading manufacturers of vegetable cleaning and harvesting equipment, will attend the Fruit Logistica show in Berlin next week, 8 – 10 February. The event is expected to bring together more than 2,000 exhibitors from 87 countries. Other than the Evolution Separator, Scotts will also be revealing details on its 2023 revisions of the Microlift Pro windrower, cabbage de-leafing system and the company’s range of Trinity haulm toppers.
The Potato Trials and Technology Transfer event will take place on Wednesday, 1st February. Host Scottish Agronomy Ltd says this event provides the company with an opportunity to update growers on new developments in potato production. “In-store energy costs, monitoring and actions for efficiency improvements” is one of several topics to be discussed during the meeting.
From January 24 – 26, Restrain will be exhibiting at the Manitoba Potato Production Days Conference & Trade Show in Canada. Restrain is a manufacturer and distributor of ethylene generators. Restrain generators control sprouting in post-harvest potatoes, in a more natural way than any other agri-chemical method. Restrain is a natural sprout inhibitor based on the natural gas ethylene.
Haith, a leading manufacturer of vegetable handling solutions in the UK, will be promoting its innovative mobile optical sorter at the Fruit Logistica event next month (8-10 February). The PRO-Sort optical sorter was developed by Haith in partnership with GRIMME UK and automates the removal of stone, clod and foreign debris from potatoes. Capable of handling up to 100 tonnes per hour with high levels of accuracy thanks to the integral TOMRA 3A optical sorter, the PRO-Sort is proving popular with growers faced with labour shortages.
Potato industry challenges posed by PCN and blackleg were among the topics discussed at the recent Cambridge University Potato Growers’ Association (CUPGRA) annual conference, as Ken Fletcher, editor at The Scottish Farmer reports in this news article. Scotland’s seed potato sector has an increasingly serious problem with the potato cyst nematode (PCN) species, globodera pallida, warned specialist potato agronomist, Eric Anderson, of Scottish Agronomy. Prof Ian Toth, of the James Hutton Institute, eld a workshop to discuss his latest research into Root damage by free living nematodes (FLN) as an important factor in blackleg infestation.
The 2023 Ontario Potato Conference will be hosted on Thursday, March 2 by the Ontario Potato Board in the Delta Hotel & Conference Center, Guelph. The wide variety of topics to be addressed by speakers were selected from growers’ requests, according to the principal organizer of the Conference, Dr. Eugenia Banks.
FAM Stumabo will be present to showcase its latest cutting innovations in the vegetable and fruit industry at the Fruit Logistica show in Berlin, Germany from 8 to 10 February. As the European leader in the field of industrial cutting machines, FAM focuses on developing industrial cutting machines for the food industry, by providing customers with the solutions they need for the cutting, slicing and dicing of vegetables, fruits, potatoes.
On Jan. 4-5, more than 1,800 U.S. potato growers and industry members from a dozen countries turned out for Potato Expo 2023, hosted by the National Potato Council, at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center in Aurora, Colorado, to do business and prepare their operations for the future. Celebrating its 15th year, Potato Expo 2023 broke previous attendance records for an event hosted outside of Las Vegas, with 1,816 registered attendees and 175 exhibitors covering more than 90,000 square feet in the Aurora Exhibit Hall.
The third-annual Canadian Potato Summit, a free virtual event, will be hosted by Potatoes in Canada magazine tomorrow, January 12. Gary Secor, professor of plant pathology at North Dakota State University, will talk about a new potato disease and some old potato diseases that have similar symptoms in storage. • Haider Abbas, applied research specialist, Canada-Manitoba Crop Diversification Centre, will give a presentation on tracking nitrogen dynamics within the potato root zone.
University of Idaho Extension will highlight the latest in news and research affecting the state’s most famous crop during the 55th Annual Idaho Potato Conference and Trade Show, scheduled for Jan. 18-19 in the Pond Student Union Building on the Idaho State University campus. Event partner Spectra Productions will host a trade show featuring more than 70 booths and displays from agricultural vendors and service providers.
Precision agriculture technology HarvestEye is showcasing its machine learning driven insights at the Potato Expo in Colorado – North America’s largest potato industry trade show. HarvestEye’s patented technology provides timely insights on root crops as they are lifted – presenting growers with valuable information on the size and count over the whole field, which is otherwise absent from conventional sampling. HarvestEye is aiming to grow its presence in the leading potato growing states in the U.S.
Spud lovers near and far, lend us your ears, for the largest potato trade show in North America is scheduled to be held in Aurora, Colorado in the early days of 2023, as Nick Wills reports for KDVR. From Jan. 4-5, Gaylord Rockies in Aurora will host the 15th annual Potato Expo 2023. This will be the first time the event has been held in Colorado.
Dear folks. I want to wish each and all of our readers a very happy 2023! Potato News Today registered a little over 12,000 visitors each month during the past year, and we surely appreciate all of you from well over 140 countries for stopping in and spending some of your time here with us – thank you so much… We will continue reporting important potato news stories as best we can in 2023, and we hope you will visit us whenever you can! With kindest wishes, Lukie. www.potatonewstoday.com
Potatoes in Canada magazine will host the Canadian Potato Summit 2023 as a virtual half-day event on January 12, 2023 at 12:00pm ET. The event will include live sessions focused on industry and agronomy updates from prominent leaders in the potato sector. The first presentation will be by Gary Secor, professor of plant pathology at North Dakota State University, who will talk about a new potato disease and some old potato diseases that have similar symptoms in storage.
The Polish Potato Federation and Europatat are excited to announce that the next Europatat Congress will take place in the beautiful city of Gdańsk in Poland from 5 to 7 June 2023. The annual Europatat event has become a key platform to assess the state of play of the potato sector and to communicate the priorities and challenges facing the potato business in Europe and beyond.
The next Potato Business Summit will be hosted during the Potato Expo on Wednesday, January 4, 2023 at the Gaylord Rockies Resort in Aurora, Colorado. Proven to be one of the popular events during the annual Expo, it is co-sponsored and presented by the United Potato Growers of America (UPGA), the Potato Marketing Association of North America (PMA), and the United Potato Growers of Canada (UPGC). Those interested to attend are encouraged to register online soon.
The World Potato Congress Inc. is pleased to present its sixth webinar this year on December 13, 2022 at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Standard time (USA/Canada). International Transport and the Global Potato Value Chain will feature Easy Fresh presenters Gavin Sherwin, Rafael Llerena, and Ekaterina Fefelova. Easyfresh Group specializes in transportation of fresh and frozen food.
Innovation is key to achieve healthy, sustainable growth and to be able to tackle the current challenges, such as climate change, water scarcity, fertiliser shortages, labour shortage and rising costs of raw materials and energy, according to the organisers of the Interpom 2022 event. With the help of an independent group of experts, Interpom organisers has selected a number of must-see innovations developed by exhibitors.
The figures speak for themselves. Back in 2013, Irish potato consumption levels had dropped to 100,000t/yr and were projected, back then, to keep on falling. Today the figure stands at 200,000t and looks set to rise into the future. So what has brought about this more than significant – and very welcome – turn of events about? Well, unless anyone would like to argue differently, the plaudits for all of this must be directed towards Bord Bia [Irish Food Board].
Speaking at the National Potato Conference in Co Meath today, IFA President Tim Cullinan called on the newly-approved Office for Fairness and Transparency in the Agri Food Supply Chain to ensure a fair share of the consumer price is paid back to farmers and unfair trading practices are eliminated. “Growers need to receive a fair share of the retail value. They carry all of the risk while the facilitators and retailers take the lion’s share of the margin,” Tim Cullinan said.
Elea is introducing its new PEF Advantage B1000-850 system for the processing of chips and fries, the company’s highest capacity belt system to date. According to Stefan Toepfl, Managing Director at Elea: “We have combined ten years of experience, process know-how and user feedback into the design, enabling our clients to process more for less.”
With the Puma 4.0, AVR introduced the world to a robust, high-tech 4-row self-propelled harvester. For the 2023 season, AVR is planning a major upgrade of the All Conditions Control (ACC) digging unit’s depth control mechanism. With fuel prices at an all-time high, AVR says the Puma’s fuel consumption is very low. The machine will be on display for the first time at Interpom 2022.
Industry professionals involved in the potato processing sector are invited to meet with the Pulsemaster team at this year’s Interpom event to discuss the company’s latest pulsed electric field (PEF) solutions, and its commitment to keep pace with emerging industry trends. “Our latest Pulsemaster PEF-systems are a must-see,” says Managing Director, Mark de Boevere.
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