News on The Potato Supply Chain from the United States

Idaho State University researchers have found high-tech cameras mounted on drones flying 60 meters above potato fields can effectively detect individual diseased and stressed plants.

At the National Potato Council’s (NPC) 2016 Annual Meeting, held January 14-15 in Las Vegas, Nevada, Jim Tiede from James Tiede Farms of American Falls, Idaho, was elected to serve as NPC’s president for 2016 and to lead the council’s Executive Committee.

Black Gold Farms is going to help retailers encourage their potato shoppers to “spice up your spud life” this February!

Celebrate Potato Lover’s Month with a purple flare! Attract shoppers with colorful, specialty varieties on your potato display.

Neil Gudmestad, a potato pathologist with North Dakota State University, has been awarded the 2015 Potato Man for All Seasons award by produce magazine The Packer.

The Food and Drug Administration has completed its food and feed safety assessment of the J.R. Simplot Company’s second generation of Innate® potatoes. Simplot will still need to complete its registration with the Environmental Protection Agency for these potatoes before introducing them for sale in the U.S. marketplace.

En una carta dirigida el martes a J.R. Simplot Co., con sede en Idaho, la FDA dijo que la papa no es sustancialmente diferente en composición o seguridad a otros productos que ya están en el mercado, y no suscita ningún cuestionamiento por el que la agencia tuviera que realizar exámenes más rigurosos antes de que sea comercializada.

TOMRA Sorting Food is set to demonstrate one of its innovative potato sorting systems at this year’s Potato Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada, January 12-14.

In October JetBlue Airways, New York's Hometown Airline™ and TERRA® Real Vegetable Chips, part of The Hain Celestial Group, Inc., revealed the T5 Farm -- a blue potato farm and produce garden at Terminal 5 (T5) at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.

For the first time, Potato Expo 2016, the largest conference and trade show for the potato industry in North America, will host a food truck chef competition highlighting the broad appeal of potatoes and mobile food trucks.

Stanley Trout joins the Idaho Potato Commission (IPC) foodservice marketing team as Promotions Director for the Southeast, based in Nashville, TN.

Twenty potato growers from all over the Wisconsin converged on Madison last week for their annual “grill the professors” ritual.

RPE Inc., announces their partnership with Discovery Garden’s. RPE will now act as the exclusive marketing partner for Discovery Garden’s brand of gourmet potatoes.

The US Agency for International Development has awarded Michigan State University (MSU) a $5.8 million cooperative agreement to improve potato production in Bangladesh and Indonesia. Additional partners include the University of Minnesota and J.R. Simplot as well as in-country partners in both Bangladesh and Indonesia.

Calyxt, Inc., a Minnesota-based company focusing on developing healthier food products, has announced that it has completed the first field trials of its cold storable potato.

Based on a review of the recently released Trans-Pacific Partnership
(TPP) agreement text, the National Potato Council (NPC) strongly supports the trade deal reached with
Australia, Brunei, Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore
and Vietnam.

The USDA Agricultural Research Service’s Potato Research Worksite is a unique, invaluable resource that helps develop better chips, fries and dehydrated flakes through improved storage and processing.

The Plant Management Network provides information on how to improve efficacy of metam sodium application by shank injection in a new educational webcast developed by Neil C. Gudmestad