News on The Potato Supply Chain from the Americas

Kelly McIver was named the Executive Director of the North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission (NCSPC) on August 17, following the retirement announcement earlier this year by longtime director Sue Johnson-Langdon.

The Idaho Potato Commission (IPC) recently updated its website to make it easier than ever for consumers to spend quality time online with Idaho® potatoes.

In a new Ranker poll, the potato tops the competition as the peoples’ #1 favorite vegetable. As such, potatoes hold an important position on foodservice menus as a foundation for profitable snacks, appetizers, side dishes, and entrées.

The new season’s fingerling potato crop looks outstanding for Heyburn, Idaho’s Southwind Farms. The company reports excellent quality, consistent sizing, and good yields.

Ideal weather conditions last Thursday helped draw one of the best crowds in recent years to the Field Day of the Northern Plains Potato Growers Association (NPPGA)

The United States Potato Board (USPB) School Nutrition Program has officially launched to reach the 55.5 million strong, and growing, school students who are part of the “Salad Generation.”

El Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP) iniciará trabajos en el sector papa de América Central como parte del apoyo técnico que brindará al proyecto PRIICA del Instituto Interamericano de Cooperación para la Agricultura (IICA).

Según el INIAF, el consumo de alimentos en Bolivia varía sustancialmente entre los diferentes productos; donde la papa se sitúa en primer lugar con un promedio de consumo de 92 Kg al año por persona, frente a solo un kilo de quinua.

El Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP) acaba de publicar el reporte anual de 2014. En esta ocasión se enfoca en los esfuerzos que viene haciendo el Centro junto con otras organizaciones para mejorar la seguridad alimentaria, la nutrición y la calidad de vida de los pequeños productores de tubérculos y raices del mundo.

The three cross cutting themes of gender, partnerships, and capacity building are the main focus of the 2014 CIP annual report. Cooperation is the common thread that binds them all.

RPE Inc. is introducing Oddball Organics™, a new brand for organic potatoes that do not fit the standard.

This year's major news of the Texas A&M Potato Breeding Program is a new early potato variety called Reveille Russet, a russet baking potato headed to the fresh market.

Late blight has become widespread in Idaho and is called the worst Idaho late blight outbreak since 1998.

The Prince Edward Island Potato Industry '... hasn't focused on the belly aching, financial or emotional challenges...' resulting from the potato tampering incidents, that are still unresolved. 'Instead food safety has continued to be the highest priority ...' says Greg Donald, general manager of the P.E.I. potato board.

The latest Focus on Potato webcast, titled “Best Management Tactics and Fungicide Resistance in Early Blight and Brown Spot” highlights the importance of measures to mitigate fungicide resistance, particularly when applied and repeatedly used on a single site.

El objetivo del Plan de Siembra de Semilla Nacional es cumplir con la demanda de este rubro que aumenta en el mes de diciembre.

The National Potato Council awards its 2015-16 Academic Scholarship to Shunping Ding, a PhD. student in Plant Pathology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Badger Common’Tater, a leading source of news, education and highlights of Wisconsin’s potato and vegetable industry is now available online.