Potato News from Europe

For the sixth year in a row, Kiremko was the main sponsor of an international wellknown cycle cross event in the Netherlands, the Kiremko Nacht van Woerden, held in October.

From 10 till 16 November, Dewulf presents its potato and carrot harvesters at Agritechnica. The company highlights the fact that there are only novelties to discover in the exhibition booth of Dewulf.

In Spain, a new potato organisation was established: "Foro Espanol de la patata", the Spanish Potato Forum.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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).