News on Potato Varieties and Seed from Europe

Seed potato breeding and trading company Royal HZPC Group, expects to achieve a strong result for the financial year 2024/2025 (July – June), with global total tonnage potentially surpassing the 1 million ton mark for the first time.

Aviko, Europe's largest producer of potato products in the out-of-home segment and one of the top five world market leaders, has signed a trade agreement for seed potatoes together with Averis, a subsidiary of potato starch group Royal Avebe and specialised in the development, propagation and trade of starch potato varieties.

Los Países Bajos son el gran ganador en términos porcentuales, siendo la gran mayoría de las importaciones de origen holandés. El perdedor, el Reino Unido.

Las perspectivas para esta próxima campaña no son muy auspiciosas y de hecho se asemeja mucho a la campaña anterior. Se recomienda realizar pedidos de semilla lo antes posible.

PotatoEurope 2025, scheduled to take place on September 3 and 4 at the Wageningen University & Research (WUR) Field Crops location by the Dutch city Lelystad, has announced the international conference titled 'Integrated Crop Management (ICM) – The Future of Potato Farming.'

Scottish seed potato exports amounted to over 92,000 tonnes in 2023/24. The largest market is Egypt with 60% of exports, followed by Morocco with 10%. The remainder goes to a further 26 countries with volumes varying from thousands of tonnes to a few hundred. 

HZPC Americas Corp. (HZPC) and partners are embarking on a new phase of supporting the North American potato industry with the creation of a Seed Potato Dealer Network.

While it may seem difficult to introduce innovations to the potato sector, Matteo Freddi of 'Freddi 1926 srl' is betting on something new at the Marca trade fair.

Leading potato supplier Branston is once again encouraging schools to sign up for the Grow Your Own Potatoes programme this year, as one of the sponsors of the primary school-based farm-to-fork initiative.

2024 has been a good year for the potato sector. So much so, that there is growing interest in potato cultivation, to the detriment of other crops, according to Patatas Meléndez. However, 2025 will be posing the same challenge as 2024: a limited supply of seed potatoes and an even higher demand.

The renovation of Agrico Research has started. Today the demolition of the various laboratories of the breeding company in Bant has started.

Mark Hoogendoorn has joined Solynta as Sales Lead as per January 1, 2025. In this role, he is responsible for leading the Sales and Business Development team and expanding the commercial introduction of Solynta’s true potato seeds around the globe.

Todo parece indicar que la disponibilidad y la calidad serán superiores a las del 2024. En cualquier caso, la temporada no está libre de dificultades.

Optical sorting of (seed) potatoes is becoming increasingly popular among farmers and packaging companies due to its benefits in efficiency, sorting quality, and cost savings. Innovative systems such as the Optica CS and Q from Tolsma-Grisnich have only increased growers' enthusiasm.

As the company's third generation, Joost Debeuckelaere took over Belgian potato wholesaler Agro Debeuckelaere's reins from his father, Walter, in 2001 and ventured into chip production under the name Waltson in 2020. 

This year in Ukraine the demand for seed potatoes is higher than in previous years, there is a significant shortage of quality seeds, EastFruit reports .

Meeting the challenges will be the focus of the 26th annual gathering in Dundee of the country’s leading potato producers and the companies that support them.

The breeding company Averis, located in Veendam, has joined Breeders Trust as a shareholder. Breeders Trust supports participating companies in protecting and enforcing plant breeder rights and contract terms.