News on Services from Belgium

Europatat is proud to become an active partner of a new EU Horizon Europe project called PATAFEST that aims at protecting potato plants by means of pest spreading and resistance characterisation, preharvest treatments, and post-harvest solutions.

The General Assembly of the European Snacks Association (ESA) has elected Sandy Iagallo, Senior Director Regulatory & Wellbeing Europe at Kellogg Europe, as its new President for the term 2023-2025.

The Conference main theme was 'EUPPA driving sustainability across the potato processing sector'. It was the first gathering of the kind since the Covid-19 outbreak.

June has marked the end of Europatat’s Presidency for Mr Gilles Fontaine, who joined Europatat’s Board in 2014 as Treasurer and became President in 2018.

How do different potatoes respond to heat, drought, and waterlogging stresses? EU-backed scientists are investigating the changes that make potatoes resilient or susceptible.

A lot of water, energy and nutrition is lost during the processing of vegetables and potatoes. Scientists from Ghent University, together with partners Flanders' FOOD, Howest, VITO and Vlakwa, are therefore reviewing the processing process from A to Z in the VEG-i-TEC research center.

Europatat is part of an international consortium involved in the research project ADAPT (“Accelerated Development of multiple-stress tolerAnt PoTato”), which aims at developing new strategies to make potatoes fit for the challenging growth conditions of the future.

Mathijs Peters, responsible for EU Corporate Affairs at PepsiCo was elected President of the European Snacks Association asbl (ESA) for a two-year term. He succeeds Dr. Rolf Nilges, Intersnack’s Director of Research & Development and External Affairs.

RUCIP European Committee -  the organisation that looks after the rules and practices of the Inter-European Trade in Potatoes - has a new internal organisation and new leadership.

An overview of the Belgian agricultural landscape. The cropmap shows the main crop type on each individual field cultivated in the 2020 growing season and is openly available via an interactive online viewer.

TOMRA Food is reaching out to vegetable processors everywhere to help them tackle the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Starch Europe today welcomed the much-anticipated publication of the European Commission’s EU Farm to Fork Strategy. Starch Europe and its members strongly support the Commission’s climate neutrality ambition and the important role a more sustainable food system plays to achieve that objective.

Europatat welcomes the Farm to Fork Strategy published today by the European Commission. There is a need to secure a fair, healthy, and environmentally-friendly food system, a message that the potato sector fully endorses.

Due to a coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the 21st EAPR Triennial Conference has been moved to fall. The new Conference date is November 2-6, 2020. Therefore, all key dates have also changed.

On January 20, the foundation deed of Belpotato.be was officially signed in Huldenberg. The composition of the Executive Board ensures that there are balances between growers, traders and processors, and between Dutch and French speakers.

Investment in Vilvoorde will give customers the opportunity to create new recipes and ingredients with Cargill’s R&D experts in Vilvoorde, Belgium.

Growers, suppliers, grubbing demonstrations - everything to do with potatoes. That is what the latest edition of Potato Europe was all about. This year, this trade show was held in Doornik/Tournai, Belgium on 4 and 5 September.

The last potatoes were planted at the end of April at PotatoEurope’s demo site and until the end of May the participation demands continued to come in. With less than three weeks to go, time for an update!