Potato News from Asia

After several years of negotiations, Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF) has agreed to allow US chipping potatoes to be transported overland from an international port to an approved processing facility in Kagoshima.

Japanese snack maker Calbee will build a factory in South Korea to meet the soaring consumer appetite for its potato chips in that country.

Russia threatens to impose temporary restrictions on import of Indian potatoes.based on phytosanitary concerns (brown rot agent)

TOMRA Sorting Food has launched a Japanese website, underlining the importance of Japan to the company’s global business strategy.

India's potato exports jumped more than two-fold during April-December period of this fiscal to 2.5 lakh tonnes.

DSM Nutritional Products has opened a Nutrition Innovation Center for Asia Pacific as part of DSM’s new S$8.8 million premises at Mapletree Business City, further strengthening Singapore’s thriving nutrition science and technology ecosystem.

Farmers in the North Lebanon town of Hissa protested Thursday potato imports they said would devastate their sales, state media reported.

As growth slows down and intense competition emerges from regional brands in potato chips, PepsiCo and ITC are shifting their focus more towards newer and healthier forms of packaged snacks, the market for which is growing at twice the speed.

Even though the ban by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on sale of potatoes to other states over the past three years has been lifted, cases of farmer suicides, which some say may have been driven by the fear of heavy losses, are still being reported.

The Government of India has stepped up taking measures, well in advance, to avoid any situation of abnormal increase prices of onion and potato.

Raising China potato production is of utmost importance. In the coming years a great effort is to be made to meet the increasing demand of potatoes for fresh consumption and for industry.

Provincial Minister for Agriculture, Dr. Farrukh Javed has said that Pakistan is capable of exporting up to one million tons of potato because of its bumper crop this year.

Potato farmers in Deesa, Gujarat are concerned because there is not enough potato storage space for the large harvest.

A bumper crop, coupled with weak demand from other States, has led to a free-fall in potatoes prices in West Bengal.

Last month, McDonald's India has cut the amount of calories and salt on its Indian menu as it fights to hold on to customers in a rapidly growing developing market where newer, healthier fast-food options are just starting to catch on.

It was bound to happen. This isn't out of the blue. It makes perfectly good sense. In South Korea, McDonald's is rolling out honey butter french fries.

The Indian government has decided to remove the minimum export price of potato as its availability has increased and prices have eased in domestic markets.

In the Indian State of Karnataka, the Department of Horticulture has decided to provide certified seed potatoes to 1,000 farmers for pre-monsoon cultivation on a pilot basis.