News on Research

PotatoEurope 2025, held Sept 3–4 in Lelystad, will feature the Innovation Award recognizing top potato sector innovations. A diverse expert jury will select winners, with strong global interest and the event nearly sold out.

On April 9, 2025, Deutscher Kartoffelhandelsverband e.V., DKHV (the German Potato Trade Association) held its 19th General Assembly in Dresden, a city with a long-standing tradition in trade and historical ties to the potato industry.

Global Potato Summit (GPS) has announced the company Strategic Partnership with PotatoEurope, Netherlands 2025—a step that strengthens the growing synergy between India and the Netherlands in the potato value chain.

The 2025 Hutchinsons Potato Trials Results Day at Worth Farms, Lincolnshire, showcased key field trials and research to help tackle major potato industry challenges, including PCN, herbicide safety, wireworm, catch crops, blight, and Alternaria.

Fedepom and Europatat have unveiled the final program and speaker lineup for the Europatat Congress 2025, set for 11–13 June at Hôtel Barrière in Lille, France, under the theme 'Potato leaders of the future: deciding under uncertainty.'

Fera Science’s Enigma I project is advancing to its second phase, focusing on sustainable wireworm control. Agri-food organizations are invited to join as co-funding partners for tailored research and practical solutions.

Emerald Research Ltd (ERL) and a leading potato grower in South West England have won an eighteen-month Innovate UK project to tackle the ever-growing problem of wireworm damage in potatoes.

The Fresh Potato Suppliers Association (FPSA) was established in 2009 to represent the fresh sector of the potato industry bringing together fresh packers and suppliers to retail.

PSA welcomes Iowa State University, Black Gold Farms, Tidal Grow AgriScience, and Potato Services of Michigan as new members in 2025, expanding collaboration to advance sustainability in the potato industry.

PoLoPo, a molecular farming pioneer has announced it has increased its capacity to produce samples for food industry partners with new, larger-scale lab equipment following its first successful outdoor field cultivation of protein-packed potatoes.

The Global Potato Summit 2025 in Greater Noida will focus on sustainability, technology, and growth opportunities in the potato industry. It will feature exhibitions, conferences, live demos, and networking to address key sector challenges.

Diploid potatoes are quickly becoming the stud spuds for breeding new commercial potato varieties. Wild diploid potatoes have 2 copies of each chromosome in their DNA, unlike more traditional tetraploid potatoes, like Russet Burbank, which have 4 copies of each chromosome.

The Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resource Development Board (RAB) is conducting trials on new potato varieties that require no fungicide spraying

Agriculture is growing in Canada’s North with new collaborations and technologies. AAFC scientist Dr. Julia Wheeler led research on season extension for potatoes and green beans in northern communities. The study focused on soil health, pest management, and improving food security.

Europatat warmly welcomes Elorn Plants, a specialist of seed potatoes production and sale based in Finistère, in western Brittany (France). The region is known worldwide for the quality of its seed potato production and the earliness of its shipments.

Andy Diercks, a fourth-generation potato farmer from the small village of Coloma in central Wisconsin, is blunt about the difficult realities facing family-owned farms today.

Potato farming in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), Philippines, spans 11,000 hectares but struggles with limited high-quality seed potatoes. At the World Potato Congress (WPC) 2024 in Adelaide, Australia, experts highlighted Apical Rooted Cuttings (ARC) as a solution to improve yields.

Gregg Halverson’s career in the potato industry started at a young age, grading potatoes with his grandfather. Family has continued to be a major theme of his career as he worked with his father and now works with his children as president and board chairman of Grand Forks, N.D.-based Black Gold Farms.