Timaru’s McCain vegetable processing factory in New Zealand is now producing french fries using a boiler system powered by woodchips instead of coal, seeking to minimise waste by 20 per cent.

Exports of frozen fries from Belgium and the Netherlands to New Zealand have more than doubled in the quarter ending July 2022. These exports will be arriving presently, given shipping lead-times.

A NZD 5.6 million (about USD 3.5 million) project to eliminate CO2 emissions and reduce demand for heating fuel at McCain’s Timaru factory will soon use woodchips to make their frozen french fries.

In New Zealand, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has released its Interim Report (Essential Facts and Conclusions) on the investigation into European dumping of frozen processed potato into the NZ market.

McCain Foods Timaru potato processing plant is reducing its energy usage environmental impact, now looking to electrification, by installing Pulsed Electric Field (PEF) technology, a first in New Zealand.

Potatoes New Zealand is asking the New Zealand government to give urgent consideration to imposing short-term measures limiting the importation into New Zealand of heavily discounted frozen potato chips to avoid a food security threat.

In New Zealand, a three month test of a new Pulsed Electric Field Technology (PEF) unit from Elea, from Germany, started at McCain Foods Timaru and involves industrial-scale food processing of french fries.

Management at one of McCain Foods’ processing plants in Timaru, New Zealand, has found over 100 opportunities for improvement in its logistics following a two day “energy blitz” from employees.

JR Simplot has applied at FSANZ for approval to export genetically modified potato products into Australia and New Zealand. Unclear is what type of products this is about, but unprocessed potatoes can not be imported.

McCain Foods has installed a new model potato peeler in Timaru, New Zealand. Timaru is the first of the company's factories in the world to use the new model.