When it comes to potato chips, the key to making a good chip is to start with the right potato. That’s why Canadian potato chip manufacturers — who according to the international market data firm Research and Markets could see the value of their industry rise to $1.7 billion by the end of 2016 — are always on the lookout for a better potato.
This year, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s potato breeding program is offering two new “chippers” for the potato industry to evaluate. Both were unveiled at the AAFC’s annual accelerated release selections program open house, held Feb. 12 at the Potato Research Centre in Fredericton, N.B.
One of these new potato chipping selections offers the industry a higher yield and fewer internal imperfections that can reduce chip quality, while the other does better in cold storage, prolonging shelf life and reducing the need for chemical treatment to control disease that can occur in storage.
AAFC research scientist and potato breeder Benoit Bizimungu says both new varieties attracted a lot of interest at the open house. A higher-yielding chipper potato, for example, is definitely something that would benefit the industry, he says.
“It is not very often that we see something that outyields Atlantic, which is the standard for chips in North America. One of them actually outyields Atlantic by about 20 per cent, and has fewer defects than Atlantic,” Benoit says, referring to the new AR2014-02 variety. He also noted the variety’s good chip quality in terms of fry colour and specific gravity. “We think it’s a potential replacement for Atlantic.”
A total of 15 potato selections were displayed at the event, the majority for the fresh market as well as specialty-type potatoes with coloured skins and flesh.
“There are several of them with red skins, and we’ve heard from a number of growers and industry representatives that red-skinned varieties are an important part of the fresh market sector,” says Agnes Murphy, another AAFC research scientist and potato breeder on hand at the open house event.
“We know that there is interest in chipping varieties that will perform well in cold storage, and that resist cold sweetening, so that’s something else we’ve been working on. We certainly know that there’s big interest in improved varieties for french fry production.”
This year’s offerings include just one french fry selection, and Murphy acknowledged there were some growers who expressed an interest in seeing more. “These things go in cycles,” she says. “We think we have some nice ones in the pipeline, so in the future there should be some more promising [french fry] selections,”
Bizimungu agrees growers can expect to see more processing types being released in the near future. “Every year is different,” he says. “This year we have 15 selections, and as in the past, we have a good representation of fresh market selections. In the future we probably want to rebalance and have more processing types. We have many processing kinds in the pipeline.”
Murphy says there were 80 growers and other industry representatives in attendance, mostly from Eastern Canada but some from as far away as Alberta. She and Bizimungu both stress industry feedback is crucial to the AAFC’s breeding process.
“It’s good for us to know what kind of traits that growers, industry, processors are looking for, which is fed back into the breeding program,” says Bizimungu. “I think it benefits everybody who’s involved in potato breeding, selection release and evaluation.”
Disease Resistance
While the characteristics of this year’s new selections vary widely, they have one thing in common.
“We like to think that each selection offers some strength in disease resistance. I think that six of them had resistance to golden nematode, which is of interest in parts of the country and for export markets. One of them had extreme resistance to PVY. There were several with extreme resistance to PVX,” says Murphy, adding another variety has moderate resistance to dry rot.
In addition, Murphy says there’s been long-term effort by breeders to try to improve the levels of scab resistance. “Most of them have moderate resistance to scab, as far as we have been able to evaluate to this point.”
AAFC showcases the top graduates from its breeding program every year, to allow the industry to learn more about the new potato selections and bid on them to do further trials and evaluations. Successful bidders receive a limited amount of the breeder’s seed to grow in their own production setting, and the rights for non-exclusive testing for two years. After the two-year period, cash bids can be submitted for a further three-year period of exclusive testing. By or before the end of this exclusive test period, a six-year licence to commercialize a selection can be negotiated.
Murphy stresses that all of the traits pertaining to disease resistance, storage quality, yield, etc. need further testing for confirmation. “These are not finished cultivars,” she says. “They’re halfway along the process, and industry has an opportunity to evaluate them in their own production areas for their own requirements. We feel they are the best to judge if these selections will meet their needs.”
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AR2014-01 French fry. Long selection with light russet skin, cream flesh, good french fry, boil and bake scores. |
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AR2014-02 Chip. Round selection with flaky light yellow skin, cream flesh, good chip colour, high yield; carries a marker associated with resistance to golden nematode, Ro1. |
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AR2014-03 Chip. Round selection with slightly flaky buff skin, cream flesh, very good chip colour, cold storage potential, resistance to PVX; carries a marker associated with resistance to golden nematode, Ro1. |
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AR2014-04 Fresh market. Round selection with smooth dark red skin, yellow flesh, good boil and bake; high yield and some indication of resistance to scab. |
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AR2014-05 Fresh market. Round-oval selection with smooth dark red skin, yellow flesh, good boil and bake, and some indication of resistance to scab; carries a marker associated with resistance to golden nematode, Ro1. |
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AR2014-06 Fresh market. Round selection with smooth dark red skin, cream flesh, very good boil and bake, resistance to scab and PVX. |
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AR2014-07 Fresh market/creamer. Round-oval selection with flaky red skin, light yellow flesh, good boil and bake scores, extreme resistance to PVX and some indication of resistance to fusarium dry rot. |
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AR2014-08 Fresh market. Round selection with smooth light yellow skin, light yellow flesh, very good boil and bake scores, and extreme resistance to PVX. |
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AR2014-09 Fresh market. Long-oblong selection with yellow skin splashed with pink, yellow flesh, very good boil and bake scores, extreme resistance to PVY and resistance to wart. |
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AR2014-10 Fresh market/french fry. Oblong selection with brown russet skin, cream flesh, good boil and bake scores, and fair French fry scores, high yields and resistance to scab. |
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AR2014-11 Fresh market. Oval selection with smooth dark red skin, light yellow flesh, good boil and bake scores, high yields, resistance to PVX and moderate resistance to scab. |
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AR2014-12 Fresh market. Round selection with purple skin and white eyes, light yellow flesh, good boil and bake scores, resistance to wart; carries a marker associated with resistance to golden nematode, Ro1. |
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AR2014-13 Fresh market/creamer/chip. Round selection with smooth red skin, cream flesh, good boil and fair bake scores, good chip scores, extreme resistance to PVX; carries a marker associated with resistance to golden nematode, Ro1. |
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AR2014-14 Fresh market/pigmented flesh. Oval-oblong selection with smooth red skin, pink flesh, good boil score, high yield; carries a marker associated with resistance to golden nematode, Ro1. |
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AR2014-15 Fresh market. Round selection with smooth dark red skin, light yellow flesh, good boil and bake scores, high yield and moderate resistance to common scab. |
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Potato Breeding “Not for the Faint of Heart”
Matt Hemphill, executive director of Potatoes New Brunswick, was among the industry representatives who attended Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s annual accelerated release selections program open house in Fredericton, N.B.
He says breeding a successful potato variety is far from easy. The work being done by AAFC, along with notable private potato breeders like Prince Edward Island’s Robert and Joyce Coffin and Bernard Ouellette in New Brunswick, represents a long, laborious process.
“It’s a slow go,” says Hemphill. “It could take nine to 12 years to bulk up the variety to get it to the commercial production stage. So that silver bullet that’s out there for our industry to replace the Burbank is maybe already in the works.”
Hemphill will tell you it’s also a process that’s fraught with financial risk, especially for growers.
“You need to find a variety that yields well, that stores well, that’s disease-free and less susceptible to viruses, and we have to get it onto the shelves of the grocery store if we’re referring to fresh,” he says.
“From a producer perspective, the reality is that somebody ultimately in the end has to consume these varieties, whether it be a french fry, a potato chip, or a fresh potato. So we need consumers, and the challenge from a grower perspective is to take a new variety … and to have the money and investment behind it to get it to market. It’s tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Hemphill says another challenge is that the big potato processing companies like McCain and Lamb Weston have their own breeding programs, and that many producers are required to grow what the processors tell them to grow.
Despite the obstacles, there have been notable successes by public and private potato breeders, Hemphill says, citing the Shepody potato, a graduate of the AAFC’s breeding program that’s now among the main french fry processing varieties, as one example.
“There are some success stories, but it’s a bit like going to Vegas,” he says. “It’s not for the faint of heart, for sure.”
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