News on The Potato Supply Chain from Europe

Profits have fallen by more than £10m at McCain Foods GB after Britain's market-leading frozen chip maker was hit by a severe shortage of quality potatoes in the UK as a direct result of the extreme weather conditions in the 2012 growing season.

Europe's second-highest court on Friday overturned a decision by the European Commission to allow the cultivation and sale of a genetically modified potato developed by German chemicals group BASF.

La Plataforma de negocios de poscosecha es un portal con información, documentación y promoción de ventas en la industria hortícola. Acaba de publicar un reporte con información de equipos y materiales para producción y poscosecha de papa.

Grimme has introduced its flagship Varitron 470 four-row self-propelled potato harvester to the UK. One machine has been undergoing testing in East Anglia, while another has already been sold for red beet harvesting.

Russia is a huge producer of potatoes and is the third largest potato producer in the world. In 2012, Russia produced 29.5 million metric tons of potatoes. Only 13% is produced by agricultural enterprises: 79% is produced by private households.

Red Emma, Blue Elise, Pink fir apple and Sieglinde: The Austrian association "Arche Noah"together with supermarket chain Spar are working towards providing selections of rare potato varieties.

HZPC Holland B.V. announces that the quotation of HZPC-certificates is determined at € 85.00. This is an increase of 9% of the quotation since the last stock trading day in last May.

Agritechnica 2013 has impressively demonstrated the growing global significance of agriculture and agricultural machinery and equipment. With 2,898 exhibitors and some 450,000 visitors, including 112,000 from outside Germany, the fair has grown yet again.

Agritechnica is the world's largest trade fair for agricultural machinery and equipment. This is confirmed once again by the figures for this year's event.

On Thursday 7 November 2013 Agrico opened its annual varieties and seedlings show at its breeding and research farm, Agrico Research, in Bant.

Greenvale provides opportunities to graduates each year to work in up to four different areas of the business over a 2 year period, before taking up a position with the company at the end.

From 10 till 16 November, Dewulf presents its potato and carrot harvesters at Agritechnica. The company highlights the fact that there are only novelties to discover in the exhibition booth of Dewulf.

In Spain, a new potato organisation was established: "Foro Espanol de la patata", the Spanish Potato Forum.

Educating children about the importance of food, farming and healthy eating is a priority for Potato Council and the ‘Grow Your Own Potatoes’ project does just that. Now entering its tenth year, the project has reached over 2 million children to date.

According to Romain Cools from Belgapom it is a fact that the consumption of fresh potatoes by Belgian families is falling, but he expects the prices to remain high.

Tong Peal will debut its brand new suite of packhouse equipment, alongside its market leading grading and handling equipment at this year's British Potato 2013, held on 27th &28th November.

Herbert Engineering, the leaders in handling systems for the agricultural, process and fresh pack industries, are again exhibiting at British Potato where they are launching three major new products.

Walkers is increasing the size of its Grab Bags by 20%. The size increase is taking place across both the Walkers core range and the brands Doritos, Monster Munch and Quavers, offering shoppers better value and making them more appealing for sharing.