Potato News from Asia

In the North of Bangladesh, USAID has started to assist potato farmers, workforce and entrepreneurs by launching a five year term (2009-2013) project entitled PRICE (Poverty Reduction by Increasing Competitiveness of Enterprises).

Conceding to Russia’s terms of importing potatoes from Pakistan, a private sector company has installed the country’s first automated potato cleaning plant in Karachi.

In West Bengal, 7,000 bags or 4,200 tonnes of potatoes, valued at Rs 50 lakh were left to rot on the open ground today because of a dispute between a cold storage facility and the state government.

There is a plan to raise export of potato to Azerbaijan this year, said head of the Union of Entrepreneurs of Turkish Nevshehir Recep Tunj.

Late blight, a fungal disease, has attacked the potato crop in Punjab, which is a major producer of tuber crop in the country, raising fear of damage to the crop.

Soon after setting shop in India, McDonalds’ Vikram Bakshi knew he had a problem — the signature French Fries weren’t right. It took him nine years and several experiments to get it right:   Name: Vikram BakshiDesignation: CEO, McDonalds India (North...

Rusland heeft aangegeven interesse te hebben in het importeren van 50.000 tot 100.000 ton aardappelen uit Pakistan.

In India, the National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) is planning to launch potato spot trading on its exchange from February next year. It will be the first perishable commodity to be traded under this umbrella.

Israel is getting a taste of potatoes grown in Hooghly (West-Bengal, India). Recently, 40 tonnes of potato flakes, processed and packaged at the Pailan Group plant was shipped to Israel on a trial basis.

McDonald's Corp. is planning its biggest ever expansion in China as it faces mounting challenges from competitors and higher food costs amid rising inflation.

Unlike other potato processors that use optical sorters to remove defects on their primary lines, Konya Seker relies on an ADR®5 Automatic Defect Removal System from Key Technology.

Potato seed was provided to farmers in Kanchanpur district free of cost to attract them towards commercial potato farming.

This past month the U.S. Potato Board held its third annual International Chef Seminar. It was conducted in Singapore for chefs from Singapore and Malaysia.

McCain Foods India, which sources potatoes for its french fries and wedges from Deesa in Gujarat, may look at other states such as Punjab, Haryana, West Bengal or Uttar Pradesh to procure potatoes

Potato farmers have lost lakhs of rupees due to destruction of potato crop by a bout of blight, yet, they are yet to receive any relief money from the Agricultural Department.

Authorities yesterday suspended the license of a Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC) seed dealer in Rajshahi after they seized 118 sacks of 'illegal' potato seeds from his possession the previous night.

Potato price in West Bengal inched up by more than Rs 200-250 a quintal over the last few days on account of a crop failure in the southern markets.

American iconic brand McDonald’s wants to take a bigger bite of China.