In Scotland, a group of major potato businesses and public sector organisations have sponsored a £242,000 (USD 313,000) research project aimed at reducing the impact of potato disease blackleg on the Scottish seed potato industry.

When Pipers Crisps — one of Britain’s best-known crisp brands — wanted to understand more about the science behind their premium products and processes they turned to food experts at the University of Nottingham.

Scientists have identified a version of a single gene involved in the heat stress response that is more active in potato types that can tolerate high temperature, potentially providing potato breeders a tool to make potato varieties less vulnerable to increased temperature.

In the United Kingdom, farming minster George Eustice (DEFRA) has approved a four-year trial of genetically modified (GM) potatoes at The Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich.

AHDB Potatoes has announced the appointment of a new chair and the addition of five new members to its board, replacing five members.

Time is rapidly running out to make sure potato stores in the United Kingdom comply with new rules on using chlorpropham (CIPC), which require the sprout suppressant to be applied using “active recirculation” at new lower rates.

After three years in office, Fiona Fell has announced she will stand down as an AHDB Board Member and Chair of the AHDB Potato Sector Board at the end of her term in office.

AHDB Potatoes' first provisional estimate of total production in Great Britain for the 2016 crop year is 5.22 million tonnes, down 5% from 2015. Average yields for GB are estimated at just under 45 tonnes/ha, down 8% on last year.

AHDB Potatoes has pledged to work closely with the seed potato sector and Scottish Government to ensure that the industry maintains a low level of the bacterial disease blackleg.

Jim Cruickshank OBE, one of the most well respected seed producers in the UK, is this year’s winner of the British Potato Industry Award, organised by AHDB Potatoes.

AHDB Potatoes will use this year’s Seed Industry Event on 3 November to review the industry’s current approach to controlling blackleg. The biennial conference, held this year in St Andrews, will also provide growers with an insight into the potential impact of Brexit, and scope out the potato market, both at home and abroad.

AHDB Potatoes has produced provisional estimates of planted areas by variety for Great Britain for 2016.

AHDB Potatoes’ Next Generation educational programme continued to explore GB’s diverse potato industry with a processing-focussed, whole supply chain day at McCain GB Foods Ltd Headquarters in Scarborough recently.

Work to make potatoes more nutritious by including nanoparticles in the fertilizer formulation is proving promising, according to the AHDB-funded researcher Karen Davies

Waste from potato crops could be ‘recycled’ into personal care products such as medical gels and beauty creams – thanks to a new University of East Anglia (UEA) research project.

Ian Wright CBE, Director General at the Food and Drink Federation, the voice of the UK's largest manufacturing sector - food and drink, responds to the vote to leave in the UK's EU Referendum.

The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board’s Chief Executive, Jane King, comments on the Brexit vote earlier today.

A team of scientists from The Sainsbury Laboratory (TSL) and The Genome Analysis Centre (TGAC) have developed a new method to accelerate isolation of plant disease resistance genes and - using their new method - a brand new source of blight resistance genes in Solanum americanum, a wild relative of the potato.