News on The Potato Supply Chain from Australia

​More than 300 seed potato farmers across South Australia and Victoria will be celebrating after last week's breakthrough in securing new market access to Indonesia.

Sabine Tanios es candidata a doctorado en Tasmania y trabaja en una investigación que trata de averiguar por qué y cómo las papas desarrollan esa coloración verdosa.

In Tasmania, Australia, surveillance programs for the tomato potato psyllid (TPP) are being ramped up as growers try to delay any incursion of the pest for as long as possible.

"Hacé que tu comida sea aburrida y tu vida será interesante", se lo escucha decir a Andrew Flinders Taylor en uno de los videos de Youtube en los que documentó su increíble transformación. El australiano se planteó un insólito desafío: comer durante todo un año solo papas. Es decir, comer papas todos los días. Papas, como su único alimento.

Raylea Rowbottom, a researcher of the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture says it's inevitable that the potato psyllid, a destructive insect that has threatened tomato and potato crops in Western Australia will make it to the east coast.

After 6 months building (and over 8 years in planning) Agronico has opened its new seed potato storage in Spreyton, Tasmania.

West Australian potato growers want their potatoes back on dinner plates every day to help ease a massive glut. The advertising campaign - named Todatoes - began Saturday night with the start of a prime-time television advertising campaign.

Seed potato growers on Kangaroo Island - an island off the mainland of South Australia - are successfully adopting a new strategy to manage the aphids and thrips pestering their crops, taking on expert advice from agronomists and entomologists to adopt integrated pest management for these insect pests.

For almost 50 years, Bernie White has grown potatoes in the rich, red, volcanic soil of Trentham, the traditional potato patch in Victoria, Australia. Now he doesn't know if his farm has a future.

Alan Parker looked out onto the farm business he had spent his entire life establishing. The West Australian seed potato grower will know in the next six weeks whether his lifelong career will continue.

Potato Psyllids, a destructive plant pest found for the first time in Australia in February cannot be eradicated, so the industry will seek to manage it, rather than destroy it, according to The Department of Food and Agriculture of West Australia.

Potato producers in south-west Western Australia say the detection of the potato psyllid (Bactericera cockerelli) is a "serious blow" to their industry. The detection of the psyllid may put national and international exports in jeopardy.

Heavy rain, particularly in New South Wales (Australia), combined with a cold winter have led to a tight potato supply and high prices.

Potato Farmer Peter Scott from the Otways region in Victoria, Australia expects to make up to a million packages of purple potato chips this year.

Leading Australian vegetable industry body AUSVEG has announced the appointment of James Whiteside as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), effective Friday 9 December 2016.

New South Wales potato grower Geoff Moar has been re-elected to the position of AUSVEG Chair and Queensland vegetable grower Belinda Adams has been elected to the position of AUSVEG Deputy Chair following a Board meeting held on Thursday 24 November in Sydney.

Australia is experiencing a potato shortage because of flood-effected potato crops in the southern states.

According to a Deloitte spokesman South Australian fresh produce company the Mitolo Group had taken control of all South Australian-owned farms of bankrupt Oakville Produce, as well as packaging businesses in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney - as of September 23.