A no-frills, no-nonsense daily account of breaking global potato news stories
As Australia’s iconic homegrown potato chip brand Smith’s celebrates its 90th year, parent company PepsiCo has unveiled its installation of Australia’s only high capacity baked potato line to produce a wide range of new ‘better for you’ snacking innovations, including Smith’s Oven Baked potato chips and Red Rock Deli premium crackers.
Brits have fallen back in love with potatoes. So says McCain’s UK & Ireland president Howard Snape, who’s been putting together some retail sales figures at its otherwise deserted UK HQ in Scarborough. He’s feeling buoyant about the findings. Snape believes Covid has “helped to re-energise” the potato.
When Michael Moeller decided in 2019 that he wanted locally made potato chips for Milwaukee, he had no idea just how local they could be. In early March, Moeller made his first sales and deliveries to Milwaukee businesses, produced by the newly founded Milwaukee Chip Co. As for raw product, he found his match in fourth-generation grower Okray Family Farms in Plover, WI.
Lamb Weston has announced an expansion of french fry processing capacity in China. “The french fry category is poised for growth globally, and China continues to be a critical market for us,” said Tom Werner, President and CEO of Lamb Weston. “This investment of in-country production for the China market is a clear example of our commitment to our strategic customers and supporting their growth plans well into the future.”
Central Plains Group Ukraine (founded by a group of foreign investors from the UK and Finland) intends to build a potato processing plant in the Lviv region in the Ukraine, according to a report by the press service of the Lviv Regional State Administration. The construction cost is about US$7 million. The group aims to create about 50 jobs at the enterprise, and plans to process 40-50 thousand tons of potatoes a year.
For many Aussies, it’s hard to believe there was a moment in time when Smith’s chips didn’t exist. With 90 years of rich Australian history, there’s no better time to celebrate those that have made Smith’s the nation’s favourite chip brand for almost a century. Danny Celoni, Chief Executive Officer of parent company PepsiCo ANZ, said this year marks a significant milestone for the brand. As a category leader, Smith’s continues to innovate by extending into new formats and segments as consumers continue to seek new flavours and experiences.
The impact of Covid-19 on the chip industry in the Northern Hemisphere is putting locally grown and processed hot potato chips at the local chippie under threat. Potatoes NZ CEO Chris Claridge is looking for Government action to protect New Zealand potato farmers from the influx of frozen fries grown and processed in Europe undercutting their locally grown equivalent.
Like many industries, 2020 brought a year of demand uncertainty for the potato processing industry with food service deeply affected in several states of Australia. Although the demand for crisps was strong, the processors of French fries were at times eagerly searching for frozen storage space as lockdowns and restrictions saw a rapid drop in consumption.
There is generally pressure for potato store managers to closely monitor carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the industry. However, this management tends to be met with mixed views. Storage experts at AHDB’s Sutton Bridge Crop Storage Research in the UK are looking to settle the debate in an ongoing storage trial.
From field to bag to front door, an Aberdeen, ID farm family has recently launched a potato chip business that focuses on being involved in all parts of the potato’s journey from seed to the customer’s palate. Roots Potato Chips, which was started in late February, is an endeavor that Aberdeen farmer Ladd Wahlen and his wife Zoey decided to pursue after experimenting with the concept in 2020.
Anyone who’s had Belgian fries after a night of drinking Belgian beer can certainly understand their appeal. And Belgian chip shops are trying to make sure that that experience can be had for future generations – by applying for UNESCO status. Belgian beer has already had that status for half a decade at this point – and now it’s fries’ turn to follow suit, says the umbrella organization that represents the owners of Belgian fry kiosks.
Every year, it takes millions of gallons of water to clean, peel and slice Idaho’s potatoes before they’re processed into any number of products from tater tots and animal feed to industrial starch. As a result, Idaho potato processors must treat and dispose of a large amount of wastewater that contains organic matter, silt and sand. But now, new research from Idaho National Laboratory suggests that potato wastewater might serve well as a low-cost food source for a special bacterium that could be used to recycle high-tech devices.
“A household name in snack foods started with one man, a dream, and a black kettle in Lancaster, Pennsylvania,” says an ABC television news anchor earlier today. She referred to Herr’s Chips that is rooted and based in Chester County and is still run by the same family. Herr’s are celebrating a milestone anniversary: 75 years, and it all started with a classic potato chip.
Lamb Weston recently announced the arrival of Lamb Weston branded french fries in Mercosur. This was made possible through a joint venture with Sociedad Comercial del Plata in Argentina, called Lamb Weston Alimentos Modernos S.A. (AMSA). These two globally renowned companies have come together to bring the Lamb Weston brand to Foodservice in the region.
In time for National Chip And Dip Day on 23 March, Nature’s Eats – a brand of Texas Star Nut & Food Company – is launching Nutchos, all-natural grain free chips made from almonds. According to Nature’s Eats. the novel chips are a great option for those wanting to Nature’s Eats, their chips are a great option for those who want to snack “more mindfully”.
Key Technology, a member of the Duravant family of operating companies, introduces ‘Global View’, a patented new software-driven capability for their VERYX digital sorters. Global View combines product data collected from multiple sensors with different vantage points around the product stream, and enables the sorter to consider each object in its entirety when making classification and sort decisions.
Market and consumer data analytics company Annual Insight has released its November Insights report on Frozen Potato Products earlier today. Following a mediocre October, November again proved to be a difficult month for the frozen potato exporters. In November 2020 trade was down 9% compared to November 2019. YTD trade is still down 11%.
According to the North-Western Potato Growers (NEPG), processing contract prices for the coming season have been published in recent weeks. The industry body says in a press release that contract prices for delivery ex-field in October-November are generally lower than last season – between 5 and 10% . At the end of the season (May-June 2022), the decline is less, and in most cases prices are slightly higher than those for the 2020-2021 season.
PepsiCo’s North America Frito-Lay unit is launching the first TV campaign for its Ruffles brand of ridged potato chips in almost a decade, while extending its marketing partnerships with star basketball players. Snack foods have seen stronger sales growth in the past year as homebound consumers do more of their own cooking during the pandemic. To help maintain that sales momentum, Frito-Lay has ramped up its marketing efforts with higher-profile campaigns.
The joint venture behind Mackie
Royal Cosun closed 2020 with a slightly higher group result than in 2019, the company says in a press release issued this week. The result was the outcome of the wide-ranging impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the business groups in an exceptional year. Aviko had an exceptionally turbulent year. Following its record operating profit in 2019, volume fell sharply in March 2020 when the hospitality sector was shut down during the first lockdown. But Aviko is confident it will pursue its growth strategy in 2021.
Belgian processors that produce fries will soon be able to try out new production methods in a test installation in Kortrijk. In a building at Ghent University, 700,000 euros will be invested to install a real ‘frying line’ for testing novel products before commercialisation.
JADBio is an information technology company based in the US and Greece, focused on BioMed and Multi-omics. In a recent experiment, researchers at JADBio collected data from 478 potato samples from potatoes grown in Germany (including climate, soil, and metabolic profiles) in order to create a model capable of differentiating potatoes that resist bruising from those that don’t, and also to predict the potatoes’ susceptibility to acrylamide formation during chip/crisp processing.
Following on from its guide How to reduce the impact of potato bruising on your profitability, Wyma caught up with Leighton Hill, Solution Engineer, to answer some questions about gentle handling, why some fertilizers increase the likelihood of bruising, and the perfect temperature for potato processing.
The founder of an internationally known potato chip brand has a Greenville connection and will be featured in an upcoming special on the History Channel. Herman W. Lay, founder of Lay
