News on The Potato Supply Chain from United Kingdom

Marks &Spencer is launching a brand new, loose skinned new potato variety this summer called Athlete. The first small volumes of the new variety will be harvested in May this year, and will then be exclusively available in M&S stores nationwi...

British farmers are warning of possible price rises and even food shortages after admitting they are struggling to cope with some of the wettest Springs in history.

A former potato firm director has been told he faces a significant jail term for his role in a bribery scam with a buyer at Sainsbury's.

Rhizoctonia is running rife in cold, wet potato seedbeds and hampering crop emergence this season.

The 2011/12 post harvest tuber survey for potato pathogen dickeya has been completed and all samples tested were found free of infection, Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA) has announced.

As part of the Potato Council’s ‘Fight against blight’ campaign, the mapping of late blight outbreaks has demonstrated outgrade piles remain a significant source of blight in potato crops.

The Syngenta BlightCast system will give growers and agronomists a five-day advance warning of localised blight risks.

Until now substituting artificial fertiliser with livestock manures for potatoes has been a fairly unscientific art. This year a trial is taking place to assess the potential for significant cost savings.

Both the ‘Grow Your Own Potatoes’ and ‘Cook Your Own Potatoes’ projects from Potato Council are making an important contribution to the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) Education Strategy 2012-17.

A new institute to help farmers produce more efficiently and an updated software ‘tool’ that enables farming and food industries to calculate their carbon footprint are launched this week.

The price of potatoes is expected to soar because the wet weather is delaying planting and slowing down harvests in Britain.

The British Potato Trade Association (BPTA) last week launched revised terms and conditions surrounding the sale and purchase of seed potatoes, providing growers with much-needed confidence that claims for contamination will be dealt with effectively.

A major corruption case in the potato industry has kicked off with guilty pleas from a former Sainsbury’s buyer and a former executive at potato supplier Greenvale.

If you are a potato grower in Scotland then you may now start to wonder what you have done wrong in the world.

A Sainsbury’s potato buyer accepted £5 million in corrupt payments from a key supplier, staying at Claridge’s and taking luxury holidays in return for a lucrative contract.

The British Potato Trade Association (BPTA) will launch revised terms and conditions surrounding the sale and purchase of seed potatoes on May 1 2012, providing growers with much needed confidence that claims for contamination will be dealt with effectively.

Growers could start seeing the benefits of the potato genome being sequenced within the next decade, with varieties bringing new traits such as PCN resistance or improved tuber shape.

Thousands of pupils across the South East and East of England will have the chance to understand more about where their food comes - thanks to help from fresh produce experts Fenmarc.