News on Potato Stats, Trade, Prices

AHDB Potatoes is encouraging seed potato producers to consider Cuba as an export destination after recent meetings with Government officials in the country.

Russia has agreed to ease a ban on potato exports from eight farming areas in Egypt, allowing shipments to resume from June 6.

Fresh and seed potatoes from all US states are now permitted entry into Guatemala, a welcome expansion of market access from only one state (Idaho) four years ago.

Industry veteran Ross Johnson was appointed as the new Idaho Potato Commission International Marketing Director.

Last month, potato cooperative Agrico announced to its members an average indication price for seed potatoes of € 26.00 per 100 kg in 2017. The price is for all sizes and classes and is higher than at the beginning of the season was expected.

USDA-AMS has proposed a rule to revise the classifications that determine the size requirements for potatoes grown in Idaho and Malheur County, Oregon. The proposal would also apply to all import of long type potatoes.

The NEPG (North-Western European Potato Growers) estimate that the growers in the 5 leading potato growing countries will plant 0,4% more potatoes than last year.

In Western Australia, a surveillance program to assess if the last year detected tomato potato psyllid (TPP) carries the zebrachip disease pathogen (CLso), did not identify a single case of the pest - with over 10.000 psyllids tested.

Over the last month, potato prices in Dhaka, Bangladesh have seen large increases, as supplies are tight.

Sri Lanka's Ministry of Finance has announced that the special commodity levy on imported big onions and potatoes had been increased with effect from midnight Wednesday, May 2nd.

Two potato packaging companies in Germany have been fined a total of ‎€ 13.2 million (USD 15.8 million) for price fixing related to their supplies to the Metro Supermarket group.

The European Potato Trade Association Europatat elected a new board yesterday. Gilles Fontaine was appointed President for the next three-years

Pepsico's joint venture in Egypt, Chipsy For Food Industries SAE, announced a major agricultural programme to produce all seed potatoes locally.

The 13 major potato States held 134 million cwt of potatoes in storage April 1, 2018, up 2 percent from April 1, 2017 according to a USDA report released last week.

Organisations representing potato farmers in Belgium and France, have started a project (interreg-GEPOS) to look for alternative destinations for potatoes in Belgium and the North of France in seasons marked by large surpluses.

United Kingdom potato trade saw strong performance from its processed potato sectors in the first seven months of the 2017/18 marketing season. Trade of frozen potato has seen strong growth both leaving and entering the UK, although imports still outweigh exports by ten-fold.

Over a decade, Potato Exports from Malta fell from 7,200 tonnes in 2004 crop to just 3,100 tonnes in 2014, a massive 56% drop.

Worldwide consumption of potatoes is increasing, according to Blair Richardson, chief executive officer of Potatoes USA during a recent meeting of Wisconsin potato growers