News on The Potato Supply Chain from United Kingdom

This November over 6,000 growers, packers, processors, retailers, researchers, specialists, consultants, journalists, students and international visitors will head to the Harrogate International Centre, for the biennial potato industry event, BP2015.

With a major new campaign to promote fresh potatoes across Britain and Ireland about to break, AHDB Potatoes and Bord Bia (the Irish Food Board) are calling on industry to get behind it and help change the way consumers think about potatoes.

After completing a solid and reliable distributor network in Belgium, The Netherlands,Germany and France, Dewulf~Miedema has now completed their dealer restructuring in England, Scotland and Ireland

A new two year research project will harness the latest aeronautic industry technology to develop testing tools that will help crop store owners to optimise the efficiency of their premises.

Experts fear that in Scotland the combination of scaled back potato planting and a drop in yield due to wet weather could lead to a shortage of potatoes.

Northern Ireland Potato Packer Glens of Antrim Potatoes has expanded with a second factory and new packaging machinery in a £1.25 million investment with potential to create five more jobs.

The updated NEPG 2015 area estimate, excluding seed and starch potatoes, is available, with total area now estimated down nearly 4% from last year and production estimated down over 12%

The first estimate of total potato plantings for the 2015 crop year in Great Britain from AHDB
Potatoes is 113,100 hectares. This is down 6.6% on the final 2014 planting figure of 121,100
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New branding and a proposed new way of working for the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) was formally launched at the Cereals event in Lincolnshire earlier this month.

Researchers in the United Kingdom aim for a new commercial potato that resists many of the worst vulnerabilities of potato crops around the world.

Esta papa (o patata) es el objetivo de un proyecto lanzado oficialmente esta semana por Jonathan Jones, uno de los más reconocidos expertos del mundo en la genética de enfermedades vegetales.

To support UK Potato Growers in decisions regarding irrigation and water use, AHDB Potatoes (Potato Council) has published a best practice guide 'Irrigation and water use'.

AHDB Potatoes launched its first ever ‘Next Generation’ programme, a series of 9 business and technical days that - for a selected few - will provide exposure to the whole supply chain.

Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Morrison’s are recalling a number of food products after a batch of potatoes used as ingredients in all of them was found to contain small pieces of metal. The affected batch of potatoes originated from a single supplier.

In the latest Consumer Category Report of the Potato Council, one of the topics addressed is the online sales of fresh potatoes - including actual growth, comparison to competitive products and grocery in general as well as future opportunities

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.

Late last week, the Potato Council published its annual GB Potatoes Market Intelligence report, wrapping up all key information about the GB potato market in order to inform decision-making and provide answers for common questions about the industry.

Better relationships between UK potato growers and the rest of the supply chain are needed if the sector is to cope with its current downturn.