News on The Potato Supply Chain from Asia

Showers accompanied with hail in some areas lashed Agra district (Uttar Pradesh, India) early Saturday morning, leaving farmers in this potato belt worried for the crop as it could be affected with diseases and yield poor quality.

Potato prices in Bangladesh have plunged to a four-year low both at retail and grower levels due to an increased supply.

Potato production in Uttar Pradesh, the leading potato growing state in India, has been hit by an erratic winter this year.

Sri Lanka Minister of Cooperatives and Internal Trade Johnston Fernando says that the local potato farmers will be guaranteed a reasonable price for their product.

Pakistan’s potato exports are lagging behind compared to regional competitors, as a result of poor logistics in the country, exporters say.

The National Potato Council (NPC) and the United States Potato Board (USPB) are pleased to announce the Government of Thailand has approved the states of Colorado, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New York, North Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming to ship seed potatoes to Thailand.

A clutch of Punjab-based potato farmers are in the final stages of signing a deal with Russian traders for exporting close to 10,000 tonnes of the crop to Russia for the first time.

iant Agro Processing Limited plans to produce some 1000 tonnes of virus- free potato seeds this year, which include breeder seeds, foundation-grade seeds and mini tubers, a top official said.

The government of Bangladesh has planned to give 20 per cent cash incentive to potato shipment for the next five years in an effort to boost production and make it a top export item, officials said Thursday.

Though onion prices are yet to cool down, potato prices have dropped at the retail end. An early good crop of potatoes in Punjab, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh has pushed down the prices.

België en Nederland mochten afgelopen winter geen aardappelen meer naar Rusland exporteren.

Het ministerie van landbouw in Libanon zal dit jaar beginnen met de export van 50.000 ton aardappelen naar de EU.

In the North of Bangladesh, USAID has started to assist potato farmers, workforce and entrepreneurs by launching a five year term (2009-2013) project entitled PRICE (Poverty Reduction by Increasing Competitiveness of Enterprises).

Conceding to Russia’s terms of importing potatoes from Pakistan, a private sector company has installed the country’s first automated potato cleaning plant in Karachi.

In West Bengal, 7,000 bags or 4,200 tonnes of potatoes, valued at Rs 50 lakh were left to rot on the open ground today because of a dispute between a cold storage facility and the state government.

There is a plan to raise export of potato to Azerbaijan this year, said head of the Union of Entrepreneurs of Turkish Nevshehir Recep Tunj.

Late blight, a fungal disease, has attacked the potato crop in Punjab, which is a major producer of tuber crop in the country, raising fear of damage to the crop.

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