Potato News from Europe

Educating children about the importance of food, farming and healthy eating is a priority for Potato Council and the ‘Grow Your Own Potatoes’ project does just that. Now entering its tenth year, the project has reached over 2 million children to date.

According to Romain Cools from Belgapom it is a fact that the consumption of fresh potatoes by Belgian families is falling, but he expects the prices to remain high.

Tong Peal will debut its brand new suite of packhouse equipment, alongside its market leading grading and handling equipment at this year's British Potato 2013, held on 27th &28th November.

Herbert Engineering, the leaders in handling systems for the agricultural, process and fresh pack industries, are again exhibiting at British Potato where they are launching three major new products.

Walkers is increasing the size of its Grab Bags by 20%. The size increase is taking place across both the Walkers core range and the brands Doritos, Monster Munch and Quavers, offering shoppers better value and making them more appealing for sharing.

Las variedades, aún sin nombre propio, serán comercializadas en el próximo año por productores alaveses, una vez concluyan los ensayos ministeriales.

Las grasas saturadas de la mantequilla, el queso o la carne roja no son tan perjudiciales para el corazón como se creía hasta ahora, de acuerdo con un estudio publicado en la revista médica British Medical Journal (BMJ).

Approximately 30 per cent of this year’s maincrop potato harvest in Ireland is now in store with growers expecting to have all remaining field work will be completed well before Christmas.

Bannisters’ Farm continues to innovate in the frozen food category with the addition of two new product ranges: Fully Loaded Jackets and Farmer’s Roasting Potatoes.

Sixty firefighters tackled a blaze which started at a Walkers food processing factory in Leicester Wednesday morning.

Last year Henk van den Berg sold his potato business of the same name to Lean Kranenburg, and since then he has been active as Sales Manager at the company in Nieuw Vennep. Henk calls the current situation on the potato market dangerous.

Breeders Trust, an organisation set up by seed potato companies to enforce proper contributions by farmers for use of proprietary potato varieties, has sued two Belgian Farmers for infraction of breeders rights of potato varieties.

According to first harvest estimates in late August, the Swiss potato harvest will be smaller than previous years' average.

FoodDrinkEurope, the trade body representing Europe’s food and drink industry, welcomes the political agreement reached between the EU and Canada on the key elements of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).

Soldier, Atlantic rower and motivational speaker, Rory Mackenzie, strives for success and is constantly searching for new challenges. Ticket holders to the sell-out BP2013 potato industry dinner, will get the opportunity to hear his inspirational story.

McCain Foods is set to launch new McCain Waffles as part of its £35m drive to deliver brand and category growth, by appealing to a broader age range of children who may have outgrown its McCain Smiles product.

Sensor-based sorting systems pioneer TOMRA Sorting Solutions will showcase its whole fruit and vegetable capabilities at the world’s leading international exhibition for agricultural machinery and equipment, Agritechnica.

In the United Kingdom, Members of Parliament (MPs) were treated to a day of potatoes, as Potato Council was sponsored to attend Parliament during Potato Week (7-13 October).