Potato News from Oceania

McCain Tasmanian potato growers supplying McCain have agreed on a price cut of $26.50 per tonne for this season.

Full scale local potato production in Fiji will become a reality in three years' time, according to permanent secretary for Agriculture Colonel Mason Smith.

Potato growers in the Ballarat region (South Australia) are continuing negotiations over pricing for the next harvest with the food processor McCain.

After a battle lasting almost 25 years, Western Australia's $45 million potato industry has been declared free of the devastating potato cyst nematode (PCN).

Another price cut in a contract settled yesterday between South East potato growers and major potato-processing company McCain Foods Australia has threatened to wipe-out the industry if the downturn continues, according to potato producers in the region.

Flour Mills of Fiji has processed into potato chips the first batch of potatoes that were harvested from farms in Nadarivatu.

It has been bred by Plant & Food Research and it has a smooth deep purple skin with purple and white flesh.

In New South Wales, Australia, Matt Simmons can barely keep up with demand for the organic potatoes he and wife Sue grow on their 48-hectare farm on the Hawkesbury River.

AUSVEG CEO Richard Mulcahy said today that diseased potatoes had the potential to threaten the viability of the entire Australian potato industry if the Australian Federal Government allows potatoes to be imported for processing from New Zealand.

The lack of rain in the Kavanagasau area on Fiji has affected potato farms in the area and many farmers fear losing their crops. A Kavanagasau farmer Jagar Nadan Naidu says they have requested for water pumps from the Agriculture Department.Naidu says ...

Potato growers who supply Simplot Australia’s Ulverstone potato processing plant have put their case for a four per cent price increase for the 2010/11 growing season, the equivalent of another $13 a tonne. Simplot has yet to respond to the growers’ p...

Scientists from Adelaide’s Flinders University found that the starch contained in cold, cooked potatoes would reduce the cancer risk associated with eating red meat, with increasing evidence available that a diet high in red meat can increase a person’...

NZX-listed meat processor Affco is the target of a full takeover bid by its largest shareholder, Talley's Group, which has agreed to buy out the next-biggest investor, raising its stake to 76 per cent.Talley's, which owned 53 per cent has reached an ag...

FIJI will soon be reducing the amount of potatoes imported into the country if a potato planting scheme introduced yesterday becomes successful.And chips manufacturer Flour Mills of Fiji has assured it would work closely with farmers to use the locally...

Bluebird Light Plus Sea Salt Potato Chips (150g bags) displaying Best Before date 25 August 2010 should not be consumed due to the presence of undeclared allergens – milk, soy and gluten.   There have been no reports of illness, however any person conc...

Australian scientists at SARDI are making major strides in diagnosing potato diseases before the potato crop is planted.Watch ABC video on this topicAustralia’s $500 million-plus potato industry will benefit from new DNA tests that can quickly and accu...

Potato growers across Australia have been urged to protect the local industry from a major pest which has established itself in New Zealand. New Zealand potato producers have been coming to terms with the disease Zebra chip. The disease is seen as...

McCain Foods has told growers in Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania it requires 10 per cent less potatoes for the 2010-11 season and wants to cut the price by AU$45 per tonne. A meeting of potato growers at Ballarat last week angrily rejected Mc...