News on Health and Nutrition from Asia

By 2040, potato wafers will delight all the senses with enhanced taste, nutrition, texture, and appearance—driven by advances in food tech, agriculture, and changing consumer demands.

The potato snack aisle is a battlefield-crammed with crisps, chips, fries, and a dizzying array of flavours. With global market revenues expected to reach over USD 126 billion by 2034 and a steady 3% annual growth rate, it’s clear that competition is fierce and only getting hotter.

With domestic production down by 1.2 million tons, potato imports have become crucial as political unrest, a government change, and severe flooding further strain the situation.

China’s top land use regulator has warned local authorities against blunt efforts to reassign land for crops amid a national push for food security.

The global agri-food system has been struggling with a series of disruptions caused by various events including drastic climate variabilities, the global pandemic of Covid-19 outburst, and the recent among them is Russia-Ukraine war.

Fans of McDonald's Fries in Japan are out of luck next week. The restaurant chain will only offers its small size portions, as flooding in Western Canada and COVID-19 disrupts the global supply chain for 'McDonald's potato'.

Shandong Santao Food Co., Ltd. is a large food enterprise that incorporates agricultural planting, livestock breeding, food processing, and international trade.

The annual demand for potatoes in Bangladesh is about 9 million tons. The Bangladesh Cold Storage Association (BCSA) urged the government to provide a BDT 9 (USD 0.11) subsidy per kilogram of potato stored in various cold storages in the country.

Chinese scientists have 'fixed' hybrid potatoes using genome editing technologies, simplifying the breeding process and allowing multiplication using True Potato Seed (TPS).

Un equipo de investigación del Instituto de Genómica Agrícola de Shenzhen, dependiente de la Academia China de Ciencias Agrícolas, avanza en un plan de diseño del genoma para papas híbridas.

In line with the Global Sustainability Strategy and Commitments, McCain released its Global Sustainability Report with a focus on India, for the first time, to track progress across its sustainability pillars for the year 2020.

Dignitaries, researchers, and private sector representatives gathered this week in southwestern Georgia to celebrate the opening of a potato seed model farm.

Looking at the Japanese snack market, Japanese potato chip products are a highly active category. Compared to Chinese potato chip products, Japanese potato chips are worth learning from in terms of flavor selection and dimensions.

The Government of Pakistan has set a target to produce about 4.871 million potatoes and 2.220 million tons of onions during Rabi Season 2020-21 in order to fulfill the domestic requirements as well as for export.

Prices of Potatoes and all other vegetables and pulses have steadily increased through the course of the coronavirus-infused lockdown.

Blaming the federal government for the steep hike in prices of essential commodities, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of West Bengal alleged that the prices were rising as the Centre has snatched away the state's power.

Even as the State Potato Mission failed to take off due to the lack of direction and apathy of the government to the project, it has expressed it desire to revalidate the contract with the International Potato Centre (CIP) for intensification of potato production.

India on Saturday threw open its domestic market for certain agricultural commodities including potatoes from Bhutan.