News on The Potato Supply Chain from Asia

Since 2015, China has selected more than 10 potato varieties suitable for processing staple foods and developed more than 300 potato-based versions of staple food.

Potato growers of the Thakurgaon district, Bangladesh are worried that they might not be able to recover the production cost due to sudden drop in the prices of the vegetable in the ongoing harvesting season.

Dutch potato processing companies are increasing their market share in the South Korean Frozen French Fry market.

Uzbekistan will allow tax-free import of potatoes until January 1, 2019. The measure is intended to eliminate the shortage of potatoes in the domestic market and to curb rising prices

Taiwan authorities amended their quarantine documentation requirements for imports of fresh potatoes, both table stock and chipping potatoes.

Food Processing Industries Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal said the Indian federal government was planning to draw a sustainable roadmap to keep soaring prices of staples tomato, onion and potato under control.

China will review anti-dumping duties levied on potato starch imported from the EU which are due to expire, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) announced earlier this month.

The potato production in West Bengal is expected to drop from last year’s 11 million tonne to 8-10 million tonnes in 2018, but is unlikely to impact the price, officials said.

Four months after farmers dumped potatoes on road in Mohali and other parts of the Indian state Punjab, seeking remunerative price for their potato crop, state government has allowed the staple food’s export to Russia and the Middle East.

An ammonia gas leak from a cold storage plant near Agra (UP, India) has caused damage to potato crops across four nearby villages, affecting some 500 farmers in the area.

According to a GAIN-report prepared by the USDA staff in Beijing, China’s fresh potato production in marketing year 2017-2018 is forecast at 97 million metric tons, a five percent increase from the estimated 92 million metric tons in the previous year.

Potatoes USA reports that the South Korean government has reopened its market for table-stock potatoes from the Pacific Northwest states of Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.

Last week North Korea's State News Agency shared a number of pictures of Kim Jong Un touring a new potato factory in Samjiyon, near the Chinese border.

Potato farmers in the Indian state Punjab are headed for another season of dwindling profits because the cold storage facilities are still flooded with old crop - and several other states are in a similar situation.

Bamyan, the largest potato producing province in Afghanistan, produced 350,000 tons this year, an increase of 15 percent compared to last year.

The National Potato Council applauds the United States Trade Representative’s victory in the World Trade Organization (WTO) case against Indonesia’s restrictive import licensing scheme.

Many Potato farmers in South-west Uttar Pradesh (Aligarh, Hathras, Mathura, Agra, Firozabad, Etawah, Mainpuri, Kannauj and Farrukhabad) - accounting for roughly a fifth of India’s total potato production have been unable to sell all their potatoes of last season.

With the first large harvest of potatoes in Cambodia expected next year, months of research in the highlands of Mondulkiri province show the country’s soil and climate are well-suited for growing certain varieties.