News on The Potato Supply Chain from United Kingdom

After two dry years out of four, many farmers are seriously considering the future viability of a water hungry crop like potatoes. An exceptionally dry summer for much of the UK this year came on the back of a dry growing season in 2018.

The Working Group for GB Potatoes has striven to bring the industry together to explore and develop what the industry needs following the levy payer ballots in Potatoes and Horticulture.

In the last six years, one of the UK’s leading potato growers has saved over GBP 300,000 (USD 330,000) through an unconventional but highly effective use of Stocks AG’s Rotor Meter.

With pressure mounting on farmers to measure and reduce their impact on water quality, Trinity AgTech has launched an enhanced module within their natural capital navigation tool, Sandy.

Leading vegetable handling equipment manufacturer Tong Engineering has announced its latest product development, which will see advanced optical sorting options available on all new models of its popular fieldloader machine, the FieldLoad PRO.

The Net Zero Hectare project has secured GBP 2.06 million (about USD 2.36 million) in funding acquired from The Farming Innovation Programme, run by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) in cooperation with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).

The UK's leading manufacturer of vegetable handling solutions will present its revolutionary new grading machine – the ProSort - to European farmers at Potato Europe 2022.

Gordon MP Richard Thomson has again called on the UK Government to get a deal in place that would see the resumption of exports of Scottish seed potatoes to the EU and Northern Ireland.

In the United Kingdom the price of French fries (UK: chips) is set to increase after recent high temperatures ravaged crops, potato growers have warned. Farmers said the heatwave had added to pressures caused by rising costs linked to the war in Ukraine.

An international research team featuring the James Hutton Institute has shed further light on the evolution and biology of potatoes as a genetically complex global food crop.

Following an upward trend in wireworm damage in root vegetable and cereal crops throughout the UK, industry leaders have joined forces to co-fund a Fera-led R&D project to find an end-to-end solution

Grimme UK and Haith Group have revealed their latest major joint project - an innovative mobile optical sorter. Designed to automate the removal of stone, clod and foreign debris from potatoes.

Members of a Danish farmers co-operative experienced a packed 3-day tour of the Angus potato industry recently.

Tim Rooke has been elected chair of the NFU Potato Forum. Tim, who farms 240 hectares of potatoes, was previously vice chair of the Forum and succeeds outgoing chair Alex Godfrey.

It’s now six years since Farm Electronics became a subsidiary of the Dutch Tolsma Grisnich Group. Both Tolsma Grisnich and Farm Electronics brands have their 'specific' UK or European potato.

Edison Investment Research, a London-based investment research and advisory company releases a report on RNA interference-based biopesticides: Feeding the World: Biological Products for Sustainable Crop Protection

The skyrocketing energy prices in 2022 are a huge challenge for potato growers. After all, ensuring good storage conditions in storage areas with the aid of fans and cooling installations costs a lot of electricity.

A meeting of Scottish seed potato growers in Forfar this week has agreed to set up a co-op to represent the sector. The new body, which is as yet unnamed, aims to deliver four outcomes for the seed potato sector