Potato News from Europe

Potato growers and agronomists in he United Kingdom will be better prepared to cope with more aggressive blight strains this season, with a new BlightCast warning tailored to focus on infections now typically occurring earlier in the season at cooler temperatures.

Tong Peal Engineering, the UK’s leading designer and manufacturer of quality vegetable handling equipment has launched its latest innovation in crop cleaning with the new EasyClean Hydro-Sep.

A small field on an island off the Netherlands' northern coast promises one answer to the problem of how to feed the world's ever-growing population: potatoes and other crops that grow in saltwater.

Pomuni, market leader in the Belgian table potatoes market, will this summer introduce the first potato brand in Belgium: Princesse Amadine

Each year, large quantities of ware and seed are exported from the United Kingdom to the Canary Islands. Potato Council’s head of seed and export, Rob Burns, updates on the current difficulties affecting this long established trade agreement.

Physical activity has little role in tackling obesity - and instead public health messages should squarely focus on unhealthy eating, doctors say.

Smashburger restaurant chain makes its way to the United Kingdom, with 35 restaurants expected to open.

Researchers from Ghent University and the International Potato Center have discovered that sweet potatoes naturally contain genes from a bacterium. Because of the presence of this 'foreign' DNA, sweet potato can be seen as a 'natural gmo'.

Permira announces today that a company backed by Permira Europe III has entered into a definitive agreement to sell Iglo Foods Holdings Limited (“Iglo Group”, or the “Group”), Europe’s largest frozen food business, to Nomad Holdings Limited (“Nomad”) for €2.6 billion.

As part of a working visit to Limburg on Wednesday, 8 April, Prime Minister Mark Rutte visited four internationally operating SME’s, including Hotraco Group (Mooij-Agro), and was full of praise for the innovative companies.

Early April the Danish Minister of Trade and Development Mogens Jensen visited potato starch manufacturer KMC and the AKK-factory in Karup.

Fresh-food specialist for the hotel and restaurant industry Rungis and HZPC are bringing the ancient potato varieties from the Andes back on to the plate in Dutch restaurants.

BrandOpus, a strategic design agency specialising in brands, has worked with McCain Foods (GB) , the best selling frozen potato brand in the United Kingdom, to create a new range of Fries designed to appeal to an adult audience.

Bayer CropScience en Farm Frites zijn onlangs in een Food Chain Partnership gestapt, met als doel duurzame landbouwmethoden te implementeren in de aardappelteelt in België en Nederland.

Bayer CropScience and Farm Frites recently started a Food Chain Partnership initiative designed to implement sustainable agricultural practices in potato cultivation in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Paulig Group has carried out a pre-study of the overall tex-mex chips production capacity within the group. Based on this Santa Maria AB, a division within Paulig Group, will investigate the preconditions for a possible relocation of the tex-mex chips production from Mölndal, Sweden, to Roeselare, Belgium.

The FAO Food Price Index averaged 173.8 points in March 2015, down 2.6 points (1.5 percent) from its revised February value and nearly 40 points (18.7 percent) below its level in March 2014.

Information Technology is developing rapidly: the Internet of Things, Big Data, Sensors, RFID, global connectivity, all are having an impact on how factories and production chains operate now and in the future.