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People News

Heather Moyse Remains Brand Ambassador for P.E.I. Potatoes

The P.E.I. Potato Board is proud to announce that Heather Moyse, an Olympic gold medalist hailing from Prince Edward Island, will continue in her role as brand ambassador for P.E.I. Potatoes. After a successful first year representing P.E.I. Potatoes at consumer and trade events across Canada and via social media, Moyse will be active in promoting the brand while competing for spots on both Canada’s women’s rugby sevens team and Canada’s women’s bobsled team.

Product News

BASF Receives U.S. Fungicide Registration

U.S. vegetable, grape and hops growers will have a new mode of action for managing downy mildew and Phytophthora blight (crown rot) on their crops. BASF has announced that Zampro fungicide has received U.S. Environmental Protection Agency registration. Zampro fungicide is a multi-site preventative fungicide containing a unique new chemistry for use on crops including potato, cucurbits, leaf vegetables, grape, fruiting and bulb vegetables, and hops. “With its new chemical class, Zampro fungicide offers an excellent tool for successful resistance management,” says Katherine Walker, BASF technical service representative.

Business News

Canadian Government Invests in New Plant Technology

A new technology to extract valuable nutrients from plants, which has potential benefits for both producers and consumers, is getting a boost from the Canadian government with an investment for Mazza Innovation Ltd. to help scale up its novel environmentally-friendly process. Mazza will use the investment of $175,000 to develop a demonstration-scale processing system that uses pressurized water, rather than chemical solvents, to extract high-value natural products (phytochemicals) from fruits and vegetables for use in foods and pharmaceuticals.

National Potato Standard Released

A new biosecurity standard has been introduced that will help the Canadian potato industry protect its crops. The national standard is a tool designed to minimize or prevent and control the introduction and spread of major plant pests and diseases in the potato industry. The National Farm-Level Biosecurity Standard for Potato Growers is a collaboration between the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the Canadian Potato Council of the Canadian Horticultural Council. The potato standard offers a consistent national approach to controlling major plant pests and diseases in the industry. The standard was designed specifically for the potato industry, and is applicable to farm-level operations of all types and sizes.

Government Helps Potato Farmers Boost Exports

Potato farmers will be able to tap into new markets and increase their profitability with an investment from the Canadian government to help find export markets for Canadian varieties of seed potatoes. The investment of $36,000 will allow the P.E.I. Potato Board to work with Canadian potato breeders to select newly-registered varieties of seed potatoes that have commercial potential in export markets. Samples of each selected variety will be put through trials in order to determine which are best suited for countries in various climate zones. This will help create a stable supply of Canadian-bred varieties that growers can tap into to compete in the international marketplace.

CanadaGAP Program Under New Ownership

CanadaGAP, the national food safety program for fresh fruit and vegetable suppliers, is now operated by CanAgPlus, a new Canadian not-for-profit corporation that will operate CanadaGAP independently of the program’s founding organization, the Canadian Horticultural Council. Under the new corporation, CanadaGAP program requirements and the audit and certification process will remain the same for participants and for certification bodies delivering third-party audits. However, the change in ownership has created new opportunities for those enrolled in CanadaGAP. Program participants will become members of CanAgPlus, offering new rights and privileges to attend annual general meetings, submit resolutions, elect the board of directors, etc. The fully integrated program is not yet available, although work is in progress and will continue into 2013.

International Convention Planned for 2013

The International Potato Processing and Storage Convention 2013 is a unique annual event that rotates between North America and Europe. Philadelphia has been chosen to host the conference from June 4 to 6. Registration is now open. Topics that will be addressed at the convention include sprout suppression, storage specific presentations and a discussion forum on sustainability.

P.E.I. Analytical Laboratories Amalgamate

P.E.I. Analytical Laboratories has amalgamated its five labs into one facility located in Charlottetown. The lab provides analytical services for drinking water, surface water, wastewater, soil, feed, dairy seed, plant tissue, manure and compost samples. PEIAL is accredited by the Standards Council of Canada to a recognized international standard, and provides testing services for the public, farmers, municipalities, the processing industry, extension specialists, corporations and research scientists.

Cavendish Farms Expands to Western Canada

Cavendish Farms has concluded an agreement to buy the assets of Maple Leaf Potatoes, the frozen potato business of Maple Leaf Foods Inc., including a 142,000-square foot processing facility in Lethbridge, Alta. The company expects to retain all employees currently working at the Lethbridge plant in addition to international employees. Cavendish Farms will continue to produce and market all products formerly offered by Maple Leaf Potatoes in the near term and will seek to retain all existing customer relationships. The Lethbridge plant currently produces a variety of high-quality products, including frozen french fries and other specialty potato products.

Frito-Lay Files for Patent

Frito-Lay North America has filed an international patent for a method it has developed to reduce the oil content of potato chips by about one-third. The snack giant has established an oil temperature scheme that it says reduces oil pick-up during frying. Its method uses a continuous-frying process to produce kettle-style potato chips.
Industry News

Bakery and Snack Food Industry to see Annual Growth through 2015

A recent market report released by the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers’ Association entitled Bakery and Snacks—Market Assessment 2012, details the effects of current trends in the industry. The market report notes bakery and snack products manufacturers will see continued growth, with four per cent growth predicted in U.S. sales of packaged snacks through 2015, but seven per cent annual growth to US$334 billion in global sales of snack foods in the same period. Globally, bakery product sales are expected to increase 4.5 per cent annually to US$410 billion by 2015. The United States is the world’s largest market for snacks, while European markets top the list for baked goods sales. And while 62 per cent of the snack food companies surveyed for this market assessment see Asia-Pacific markets as the source of the largest fraction of their sales growth, only 20 per cent of bakery companies share that experience.

VBC to Acquire Pace International

Valent BioSciences Corporation has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Pace International LLC, a global leader in the post-harvest segment of commercial agriculture with operations in the United States, Mexico and South America. The acquisition adds another platform to VBC’s rapidly-expanding global biorational business. Based in Seattle, Wash., Pace specializes in the development and commercialization of coatings, sanitizers and post-harvest disease management products for use in many crops, including citrus, stone fruit, pome fruit, potatoes and others.

JR Simplot PVY Research

JR Simplot Company in the United States has sequenced the genes in wild potatoes that are associated with PVY resistance. A new eIF4E-1 variant coded as Eva1 was found in Solanum chacoense, S. demissum and S. etuberosum. The researchers found that the protein exhibits amino acid substitutions at 10 different locations when compared with the cultivated potato (Solanum tuberosum) homolog. Since the gene sources of Eva1 are sexually compatible with potato, molecular strategies can be employed to produce intragenic potato cultivars.

Researchers Create Potatoes with Higher Levels of Carotenoids

Potatoes with higher levels of beneficial carotenoids are the result of United States Department of Agriculture studies to improve one of America’s most popular vegetables. Scientists with USDA’s Agricultural Research Service bred yellow potatoes with carotenoid levels that are two to three times higher than those of the popular Yukon Gold yellow-fleshed potato variety. The findings of the study have been published in the Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science.

Invertase Key Enzyme in Cold-Induced Sweetening of Potatoes

Preventing activity of a key enzyme in potatoes could help boost potato quality by putting an end to cold-induced sweetening, according to USDA scientists. Cold-induced sweetening, which occurs when potatoes are put in long-term cold storage, causes flavour changes and unwanted dark colours in fried and roasted potatoes. But long-term cold storage is necessary to maintain an adequate supply of potatoes throughout the year.  ARS scientists found that during cold storage, an enzyme called invertase causes changes in potato sugars; for example, more accumulation of sucrose and a corresponding increase in the amount of glucose and fructose in tubers stored at very low temperatures. The scientists’ research paper, published in the journal Plant Physiology, provides proof of the concept that the invertase enzyme is critically important in the process.

Potato Blight Still a Threat to Global Food Security

According to United Kingdom-based James Hutton Institute, potato blight is still a major threat to global food security. Responsible for sporadic outbreaks of tragedy throughout history, the disease is a particular problem today for emerging countries in Africa and Asia. Through DNA-based forensic analysis, research leader David Cooke and partners describe the emergence and spread of highly aggressive lineages of Phytophthora infestans, the pathogen that causes potato late blight, which have rapidly displaced other genotypes in Europe, making the plant disease more difficult to manage.

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