News on Industry Associations

FoodDrinkEurope, the trade body representing Europe’s food and drink industry, welcomes the political agreement reached between the EU and Canada on the key elements of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).

In the United Kingdom, Members of Parliament (MPs) were treated to a day of potatoes, as Potato Council was sponsored to attend Parliament during Potato Week (7-13 October).

A delayed Red River Valley red potato crop was very late in revealing itself. But by Oct. 3, about 50 percent of the shipping district’s crop had been harvested, according to Ted Kreis, marketing director of the Northern Plains Potato Growers Association.

The potato harvest is nearing completion on Prince Edward Island, as growers have been blessed with favourable weather to harvest their valuable crop.

Food industry buyers and professionals in Burma received their first taste of U.S. frozen and dehydrated potato products with the United States Potato Board’s (USPB) participation in the U.S. Food &Beverage Agent Show.

The Potato Marketing Corporation of Western Australia has started a campaign to increase the consumption of fresh potatoes.

In the United Kingdom, a high profile advertising campaign has been launched to drive awareness and sales of named potato varieties.

It’s potato harvest time in northern Maine and thanks to one of the longest stretches of nice weather since midsummer, farmers from one end of Aroostook County to the other are looking to get as much of their crop in as they can while the the sun shines.

Washington's hot summer has shrunk the size of potatoes, which could make long fries and large baked potatoes less plentiful this season.

More than 140 potato growers, advisors and agronomists met at Frederick Hiam Ltd, Tuddenham, Suffolk at the end of August, 2013, for Potato Council’s East of England Potato Day.

Ben Stein - Actor, Author, Economist, and Pop Culture Icon - will be headlining the Potato Expo 2014 in Texas.

This week, Breeders Trust successfully reached an agreement with eight Italian agricultural cooperatives and producers that propagated potato varieties and marketed these as officially certified seed potatoes, without permission of the variety owner.

Total US potato and product exports for FY13 (July 1, 2012 – June 30, 2013) increased 4 percent in value to $1,639,911,793 and also rose 4 percent in volume to 1,561,896 metric tons (MT)--both record levels.

Yield trials of the Dutch Farmers Union VTA indicate a yield mid August 19 percent below the 5-year average.

Growers, agronomists and technical specialists turned out in high numbers at Potatoes in Practice earlier this month on the James Hutton Institute’s Balruddery Farm, Invergowrie.

During the week of Aug. 23, the National Potato Council (NPC) led a delegation of five U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employees in a crop tour of the Columbia Basin growing area in Oregon.

Importers and growers looking to buy high health, high quality seed are warmly invited to visit Potato Council’s stand at Potato Europe (Emmeloord, The Netherlands, September 11-12, 2013).

North American Potato Market News (NAPMN) is projecting a 22.6% production drop in the North Dakota Potato crop this fall.