Potato News from Asia

Du Haotian, a postgraduate student at Northwest A&F University in northwest China's Shaanxi province, has helped a township in the province develop its potato industry by introducing new varieties cultivated by his school.

The Georgian team of EastFruit analysts draws attention to the unusual situation in the Georgian potato market this season.

New foreign varieties of potatoes are grown in Azerbaijan. Samir Verdiyev, a local farmer said he grows potatoes in six districts of the country, delivering only seeds of varieties to Azerbaijan.

Potatoes produced by contract growers of the Bangladesh Agricultural Corporation (BADC) are now being exported to Malaysia.

In February EastFruit experts identified the main reasons for the sharp rise in potatos prices in Uzbekistan over the past few years, having analyzed trends in the production, import and consumption of potatoes for the period from 2000 to 2020.

Last week Japan eliminated its remaining 2.1% tariff on US frozen fries (HS 2004.10) as a result of the tariff concessions secured under the US-Japan Trade Agreement.

NASA Harvest (NASA’s Food Security and Agriculture Program) and CropX, a global leader in soil analytics for agriculture, today announced a strategic partnership that will give NASA Harvest unprecedented soil insights for its global agricultural monitoring efforts.

Bharat Insecticides Ltd. (BIL), a group company of Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (Mitsui) specializing in crop protection products announced that it has changed its name to ‘Bharat Certis AgriScience Ltd.’ with effect from 1st April 2021.

Agrico's Phytophthora-resistant Next Generation varieties Carolus and Alouette are cultivated in Bangladesh. These varieties provide a solid foundation for a sustainable and healthy crop. Because of their natural resistance to Phytophthora, they have increased yield security with the least possible input. This results in an optimum return.

Cold storages full at 97% capacity; bumper crop drags prices of the spud down.

Lamb Weston Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: LW) announces an expansion of its french fry processing capacity in China.

Pakistan is poised to become self-sufficient in potato seed by mid-2022. The country is going to start producing high-quality, virus-free, third-generation potato seed.

The strength in demand for potatoes grown in Mondulkiri, Cambodia, has farmers in the region planning to expand their cultivation for next season, says Song Kheang, director of the province’s agriculture department.

Potato cultivators in West Bengal were afraid they will face severe losses as the price of good quality seeds have skyrocketed even as the minimum support price (MSP) fixed has remained relatively low.

With COVID-19 still restricting international travel, Pringles Japan is continuing its 'Passport Flavors' series centered around replicating regional flavors from around the world in 2021.

Retail prices of potatoes have risen marginally, given that farmers have been scrambling to stock up on the harvest, which has had a bumper production this year. This very bounty and the stockpiling is expected to keep potato prices stable over the next season.

Predicting a bumper harvest of potato this season, the West Bengal Cabinet on Monday decided to allow cold storage owners to purchase at least 10 lakh (1 Million) metric tons of tuber from farmers at a fixed price, so that they do not have to suffer losses, a senior official said.

Central Potato Research Institute, (CPRI) Ooty in Tamil Nadu has developed two disease resistant potatoes - Kufri Sahyadri and Kufri Karan - hybrid varieties which at present showing promising results in improving yield by 25 per cent to 30 per cent at laboratory level.