News on Potato Trade from Asia

Potato Farmers in Rangpur, Bangladesh are happy after harvesting an all-time record amount of potatoes while getting a lucrative market price in the Rangpur agriculture zone.

The Salim Group, one of Indonesia's largest business groups, signed a R&D agreement worth $10 million with seed producer East West Seed Indonesia in The Hague last Friday to boost potato production in Indonesia.

Iran exported more than 678,700 tons of potatoes to 17 countries in the last Iranian year (ended March 19).

Pakistan is expected to have a bumper potato crop this season, which can fetch a record foreign exchange, said an official of Ministry of National Food Security and Research (NFSR).

As farmers in Pakistan are getting ready for the harvest, false rumors are spread that the Pakistani government has imposed duty on the export of potatoes.

128 containers with around 4.000 tonnes of potatoes from Lebanon destined for Arab Gulf states have been stopped in Port Said, Egypt or have already been returned to Lebanon.

American Lorain Corporation (NYSE MKT: ALN) an international processed snack foods, convenience foods, and frozen foods company based in Shandong Province, China, today announces that its French fries sales have contributed over 20 million RMB (about 3.1 million USD, 2.9 million EUR) to the revenues so far in 2015.

USDA Foreign Agricultural Service regularly reports on various agricultural topics around the world. In GAIN report CH15036 published in September 2015, the production of potatoes and potato products in China as well as imports and exports are highlighted.

Armenian potato growers are able to export up to 10 thousand metric tons of seed potatoes to Russia, Hrachya Berberyan, head of the Agrarian and Peasant Union said recently.

Potato production in Kurdistan has seen a 13-fold increase over the last 7 years and is well above domestic demand, allowing export of the surplus. Nevertheless, potatoes have to be imported later in the season, since local potato storage capacity is lacking.

Oregon potato-promoter Jim Cramer recently returned from what he called a “potato mission trip” to Vietnam. As the Southeast Asian economy expands and young people’s tastes become more global, the market for American products, like potatoes, has grown.

Speculation has arisen that Turkey may soon begin to purchase cheaper potatoes from its neighbor Iran.

Sri Lanka's Ministry of Finance announced April 25, 2015 that the import taxes on big onions and potatoes have been increased with immediate effect.

South Korea could help provide Australian potato growers with some relief from domestic cost pressures via a potentially lucrative growth market for exports.

After several years of negotiations, Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries (MAFF) has agreed to allow US chipping potatoes to be transported overland from an international port to an approved processing facility in Kagoshima.

India's potato exports jumped more than two-fold during April-December period of this fiscal to 2.5 lakh tonnes.

Farmers in the North Lebanon town of Hissa protested Thursday potato imports they said would devastate their sales, state media reported.

Provincial Minister for Agriculture, Dr. Farrukh Javed has said that Pakistan is capable of exporting up to one million tons of potato because of its bumper crop this year.