Potato News from Belgium

TOMRA Food is reaching out to vegetable processors everywhere to help them tackle the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Respectfully using our soils and cultivating efficiently are key for a sustainable agricultural sector. Both private individuals – who determine demand in supermarkets – and governments are calling for a change of techniques, which is clear from the fact that all manner of chemical crop protection products and weed killers are rapidly and increasingly being prohibited.

Free, downloadable publication by TOMRA Food for Potato Fresh Packers addresses challenges intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is the story of a family farm in the North of France, handed down from father to sons some twenty years ago. Over two decades, the sons have earned a fine reputation in the washed potato business.

European potato farmers and processors have pushed back against Australian claims they are about to dump subsidized frozen chips from a coronavirus-caused glut into the Antipodean market.

Continúa el drama nacional que supone la falta de consumo de patatas fritas en Bélgica.

Theme: ‘Let’s connect the potato chain in the post-coronavirus world’. 2020 will go down in history as 'the year of the coronavirus pandemic'.

TOMRA Food has appointed category expert Marco Colombo as Global Category Director Potatoes. In this role, he will strengthen the company’s relationship with the potato industry even further and consolidate its position as a thought leader in the sector.

Starch Europe today welcomed the much-anticipated publication of the European Commission’s EU Farm to Fork Strategy. Starch Europe and its members strongly support the Commission’s climate neutrality ambition and the important role a more sustainable food system plays to achieve that objective.

Europatat welcomes the Farm to Fork Strategy published today by the European Commission. There is a need to secure a fair, healthy, and environmentally-friendly food system, a message that the potato sector fully endorses.

The foodservice demand for potato products has dropped with 50 – 60 % and the export markets have lost their potential, so the world-wide potato-processing industry has reduced their capacity and need for raw material. More than 2 million tons will probably not been processed in the NEPG mainland potato countries only.

Belgians are being called upon to eat fries at least twice a week as more than 750,000 tons of potatoes are at risk of being thrown away.

The Covid-19 global pandemic is having a dramatic impact on day-to-day life, both on a personal level and in the way businesses operate. To enable live demonstrations of its sorting solutions, TOMRA Food is leveraging digital technology.

Last year, despite the difficult growing conditions as a result of the extreme heat and drought during both the 2018-2019 and the 2019-2020 seasons, the Belgian potato-processing industry once again improved the record for processed potatoes.

The three-year campaign, co-financed by the European Commission under the EU Promotion policy, will run until the end of 2022 and is now live online under the hashtag #potatosurprises.

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has dealt a blow to a, particularly Belgian market, as the country begins to see declining sales of the humble fries.

Due to a coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the 21st EAPR Triennial Conference has been moved to fall. The new Conference date is November 2-6, 2020. Therefore, all key dates have also changed.

Europatat, the European Potato Trade Association, regrets to inform that the Europatat
Congress 2020, scheduled to take place on 11 and 12 June in Brussels, will be cancelled following
the escalation of COVID-19 crisis in Europe.