With reports again highlighting a concerning lack of knowledge amongst young adults and the origin of the food they eat, educating the next generation remains an important focus. As popular primary school project ‘Grow Your Own Potatoes’ enters its twelfth year, AHDB Potatoes is calling for greater industry engagement to maximise its impact. Sue Lawton, education co-ordinator for AHDB Potatoes:[Read More…]
Trends
UK: Purple potatoes offer fresh sales opportunity
Promoting the health benefits of purple potatoes could help get spuds included in the recommended five-a-day fruit and veg portions and boost fresh potato sales. Fresh potato consumption has slipped in recent years due to increased consumer focus on convenience foods and the myth that spuds are unhealthy and fattening. A recent boom in soft fruit sales has been driven[Read More…]
Poland: Potato harvest 1 million tonnes lower than in 2014
According to estimates of the Institute of Plant Breeding and Acclimatization and the Institute of Agriculture and Food Economics, Poland’s potato harvest has amounted to approximately 6.7 million tonnes, which is nearly 1 million tonnes less than in 2014. The main reason for the fall in the harvest was the lower yields caused by prolonged drought and hot weather during[Read More…]
Agrico turnover decreased by 12% to 236 million Euro
The turnover of potato cooperation Agrico decreased by 12% to 236 million Euro in 2014/2015 compared to 2013/2014. The cooperation has paid out the maximum to the members, which limited the result to 511,000 Euro. Fiscal year 2014/2015 was a difficult year for Agrico, in which each market had its own dynamics due to different circumstances. In consumption potatoes there[Read More…]
Canada: More Ontario potatoes on Ontario plates
The average Ontarian consumes approximately 140 pounds of potatoes per year. Ontario’s entire fresh market potato industry is worth $40 million a year and Ontario potato growers supply approximately 70 per cent of that market. Ontario’s potato growers have teamed up with researchers at the University of Guelph to identify new potato varieties that grow well in this province and are[Read More…]
US: Kettle Brand to introduce new crop of root vegetables
Kettle Brand, known for its extra crunchy and boldly flavored kettle-cooked potato chips, is expanding its expertise this January to a new crop of root vegetables – sweet potatoes, beets and parsnips. The new line – Kettle Brand Uprooted – features real sliced vegetables, lightly seasoned with oil and sea salt. “After 30 years of perfecting our chip-making skills with potatoes, we[Read More…]
Outlook 2016: Field vegetable growers in the UK face tough decisions
In the eastern counties there appears to have been an increase in demand for vegetable land, supported by the Defra horticultural statistics for 2014. These suggest that the total area of vegetables has increased in recent years. There has been further and more remarkable consolidation in the sector, affecting both growers and grower-packers, following some years of expectation, says Andersons[Read More…]
US: Pepsi unveils ‘good-for-you’ vending machines without Pepsi
Pepsi unveiled a new vending machine that offers “good- and better-for-you product choices” that include potato chips and caffeinated fruit drinks. The new Hello Goodness vending machines will hit the maket next year and offer snack-seekers various Pepsi products like Naked Juice drinks, Lay’s Oven Baked potato chips, SunChips, Nacho Cheese Doritos, Gatorade, Mountain Dew Kickstart and Sabra ready-to-eat hummus kits. When asked[Read More…]
This company turns recycled potato chip bags into 3D printing filament
While many view 3D printing as the future of fabrication, the technique uses a lot of plastic. One company, however, is trying to cut down on just how much plastic it uses. The company is called 3D Brooklyn, and it is a small studio that uses materials like potato chip bags, which can’t really be recycled in the traditional way. Chip[Read More…]
McDonald’s reinvents the wheel again, but is this too far?
McDonald’s is facing a global slump in sales, and lately it seems like they’ll try anything to get customers back in-store. The company has released a flamboyant range of new menu items, but it remains to be seen whether these will improve profits in Australia and abroad. With over 36,000 restaurants worldwide, McDonald’s is still the biggest name in fast food. However,[Read More…]
Newly deregulated GMO potato aims to benefit health, reduce shrink
A new genetically engineered potato has been deregulated. The V11 Snowden was developed by J.R. Simplot Co. and has been engineered to benefit consumer health, improve product quality and reduce culls and pick-outs through low acrylamide potential, reduced black spot bruising and lowered reducing sugars. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service previously reviewed and deregulated these GE[Read More…]
Japan’s New Holiday Snack: Strawberry Shortcake Potato Chips
Christmas and New Year’s are big snack holidays in Japan, specifically cake. A quick Google search will tell you that tasty treats with decorative strawberries are also popular. However, only the most dedicated to eat a whole cake by themselves, so snack brand Koikeya is introducing its strawberry shortcake-flavored potato chips starting on December 21. The manufacturers assured consumers that[Read More…]
Australian R and D company announces “dairy alternative” from potato breakthrough.
PotatoMagic Pty Ltd, an Australian R&D company, recently announced a new product development that will change your view of the humble potato. The PotatoMagic lab has produced a dairy alternative based on potato (dairy is a USD$334B global industry.) The company has made cheese, milk and ice-cream alternatives in the lab, based on their potato processing innovations. The company is now[Read More…]
UK: Are you prepared for next season’s nematicide shortages?
With British potato growers facing nematicide shortages next spring a new publication gathers together the latest information and experimental results on control of free living nematodes to help inform pest management decisions. A new publication from AHDB Potatoes aims to help potato growers and agronomists make decisions on pest management plans for free living nematodes in light of expected shortages of nematicides in 2016. With[Read More…]
Aussies still love their fizzy drink and chips
Salty processed snacks and sweet soft drinks, consumed individually, are definitely on the list of ‘occasional foods’. But it appears Australians like to double up on their treats, with research revealing that people who snack on potato chips, corn chips, Twisties and Cheezels in an average seven days more often than not also drink flavoured soft drinks in the same[Read More…]
Late blight resistant potatoes, improved through GM show promise in CIP labs
Results from early trials conducted by CIP, show great promise in the global quest to tame late blight, the scourge of smallholder potato farmers and large producers globally. “Everywhere you grow potatoes, you have late blight,” says Marc Ghislain, program leader at CIP. “It is the number-one disease afflicting potato crops.” Conventional potato breeding is slow and unpredictable, CIP program[Read More…]
Detroit’s Better Made has chipped away at customer tastes for 85 years
Better Made Snack Foods, celebrating its 85th year in business, keeps rethinking its products as consumer tastes continue to shift to snacks that are lower in salt, fat and calories. But regardless of national trends, chips still rule. “Our best seller is still chips,” said Mark Winkelman, president of the Detroit-based company. Better Made is part of a group of[Read More…]
North American spud production up
North American potato production is expected to increase 2% this season. About 513 million cwt. are set to be produced in 2015-16 in the U.S. and Canada, according to the Nov. 24 North American Potatoes report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. U.S. fall production is estimated at 409 million cwt., 1% more than 2014. Canadian growers are[Read More…]
How potatoes rule the US
Whether they’re fried or mashed, potatoes remain a staple in the American diet, with potatoes accounting for 15 percent of vegetable farm sales. Even though sweet potatoes are currently experiencing an uptick in popularity largely thanks to their nutritional benefits, potato remains king among American farmers. More than 44 billion pounds of potatoes were harvested in 2015, compared with just[Read More…]
New innovations in potato storage technology
To protect their investment, it’s important for growers to keep on top of the latest innovations in ventilation, humidification and spout control when storing their potato crops. Spud Smart magazine in Canada talked to some industry experts about new equipment, products and technologies aimed at ensuring storage success. Ashley Gorman, vice-president of sales at P.E.I.-based Gorman Controls, believes the most important[Read More…]
Europe: NEPG raises yield figure for consumption potatoes
The combination of later harvest and good growing conditions at the end of the harvest has caused the NEPG to raise the yield figures of the five NEPG countries from 1 October by 300,000 tonnes, to 25,157,000 tonnes. The Belgian yield of the non Bintje varieties are the main cause of this. Whereas on the 1st of October in Belgian[Read More…]
UK: Costs of potato production trends revealed at BP2015
There may be a small decrease in the costs of potato production this year for the second year running, but the long-term trend is for them to increase. This is partly because the price of red diesel has gone down by almost 25 per cent, and fertiliser costs are benefiting from a 4 per cent drop in the cost of[Read More…]
US: ConAgra move won’t impact Lamb Weston
ConAgra, which purchased Lamb Weston in 1988, is spinning off that part of its operation by the fall of 2016. Lamb Weston officials say the move should not impact the American Falls potato processing plant. ConAgra announced this week that it plans to divest itself of the frozen-potato products operation, which are sold to restaurants and commercial customers, to focus on[Read More…]
How drones are helping Scots scientists to grow better potatoes
DRONES, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), are used for many different purposes these days – everything from remote warfare to parcel delivery and good old-fashioned fun. But crop scientists at the University of Aberdeen and the James Hutton Institute believe the aircraft can take potato breeding into the future. Resembling scaled-down stealth bombers, these remotely controlled drones are mounted with[Read More…]
US: National Potato Council ‘strongly supports’ TPP
U.S. potato volumes have grown 56% in the last decade on the back of bilateral and multilateral trade agreements, and expectations are high the Trans-Pacific Partnership will spark further growth for the sector. In a release, the National Potato Council (NPC) urged the U.S. Congress to complete its review of the TPP and approve the agreement. The NPC said congressional[Read More…]
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