Potato News from Belgium

Toxic datura and nightshade weeds are more often harvested with crops such as green beans and baby leaf spinach, with the risk of getting into the final product. Today, advanced sorting technology is capable to deal with these challenges

In Emmeloord, with more than 60 employees, Eqraft designs, builds and maintains solutions for agricultural companies worldwide.

Crop.zone, a pioneering agtech company, just announced the successful launch of its revolutionary hybrid herbicide technology in Canada.

DOWNS has extended its range of optical potato sorters with the arrival of the I-CropVision®: a modular version of the CropVision®, it incorporates the same technology and numerous benefits.

In keeping with the four-yearly tradition, one of the potato sector's most important trade fairs, Potato Europe, will soon again be held in Kain (Doornik), Belgium. Among a range of innovations Dewulf will present at Potato Europe 2023, the main eye catcher will be an entirely new cup planter, named Certa 40 Integral.

One of the UK's leading manufacturers of packaging machinery will celebrate two significant milestones at this year's British Potato Show.

Scott decided to take the plunge and combine the best of the new components and systems now available with a new Palletiser that met the needs of Industry 4.0 and also incorporated the 'wish lists' of their current and future customers production and maintenance departments.

As part of a package of measures for a sustainable use of natural resources, the European Commission is proposing to set legally binding food waste reduction targets to be achieved by Member States (MS) by 2030.

The North-western European Potato Growers (NEPG) estimate the area of ware potatoes has increased by 2 to 3%. This is slightly higher than the record in 2020, when it was 522.000 ha for the EU-4 (NL, BE, DE, FR).

To actively take charge of its products on the used market, AVR is launching a dedicated team and accompanying brand for its used agricultural machinery: AVR Green Select.

Europatat is proud to become an active partner of a new EU Horizon Europe project called PATAFEST that aims at protecting potato plants by means of pest spreading and resistance characterisation, preharvest treatments, and post-harvest solutions.

The General Assembly of the European Snacks Association (ESA) has elected Sandy Iagallo, Senior Director Regulatory & Wellbeing Europe at Kellogg Europe, as its new President for the term 2023-2025.

The sector-wide preference for potato planting and ridging in one working pass has never been greater. Dewulf has been responding to this demand for several years with the Smart-Float principle.

Alain Dufait became the new Managing Director of Lutosa the 1st of April. He succeeds Alain Duranleau, that held this role over the past 5 years.

Following the success of the promotion campaign Potatoes, prepare to be surprised – Europe’s favourite since 1536 that was launched in 2020 and finished at the end of last year

In Belgium, Industriële Koeltechniek Roose (IKR) recently installed a new cooling and freezing system at potato specialist De Aardappelhoeve.

A recent report by the Global Coalition of Fresh Produce (GCFP) analyses the global trading environment for fresh fruits and vegetables and concludes a number of challenges threatening the long-term economic viability of the fresh produce sector worldwide.

Copa-Cogeca, Freshfel Europe, the European Fresh Produce Association, and Europatat, the European Potato Trade Association, have taken note of the European Commission’s proposal for a Regulation on Packaging and Packaging Waste that was published on 30 November 2022