AFRICA During his presentation at the official opening of the 11th African Potato Association (APA) Congress in Kigali, Rwanda, World Potato Congress (WPC) president, Romain Cools, announced the continuous effort of his organization to be a partner of the African potato sector. Cools illustrated this by referring to the active role of African potato specialists in WPC’s global organization — Potatoes South Africa CEO Andre Jooste and Berga Lemaga of CIP, Uganda…
LAST AUGUST, at the Potato Association of America (PAA) annual meeting, I had an opportunity to talk with Michiel de Vries, Solynta’s research team lead, about the work he and his colleagues are carrying out. Solynta, a potato seed breeding company based in Wageningen, the Netherlands, has invented a fast and efficient hybrid breeding technology. One that could change global food consumption and unlock the true potential of the potato, de Vries…
Production of frozen potatoes in Russia for the period 2014-18 increased from 4.7 thousand tons to 42.4 thousand tons. This was reported by RBC with reference to the Analysis of the Frozen Potato Market in Russia, prepared by BusinesStat. Analysts noted that until 2018, frozen potatoes for fast food chains were mainly imported. According to this study, in 2014-17 annual production output ranged from 4.6 thousand tons to 6.1 thousand tons, and the main growth in…
Bayer presented challenges and best practice experiences with the implementation of its Root2Successs™ concept on the continent, during the African Potato Association congress in Kigali, Rwanda. This holistic concept supports sustainable production systems covering crop rotation, soil preparation, catch and cover crops and the use of the innovative crop protection products Emesto™, Velum™ and Serenade™. The 4-year experience with Bayer’s smallholder project in Kenya underpinned the success of the Root2Success concept: farmer…
The potato is one of the most important food crops worldwide. Improvements to its traits can therefore have a major impact. Reading the genome structure of the potato is extremely tricky, however, as a regular potato consists of four genomes, which makes it difficult to determine the position of the genes. The recent research applied a diploid real potato plant with only one genome, a so-called homozygote, which makes it easier to read and compare the DNA base sequence. This plant, Solyntus, was produced as part of Solynta’s hybrid potato breeding programme. The genome…
During his presentation at the official opening of the 11th African Potato Congress in Kigali, Rwanda, World Potato Congress President, Romain Cools, announced the continuous effort of his organization to be a partner of the African potato sector. President Cools illustrated this statement by referring to the active role of African potato specialists in WPC’s global organization: Dr. A. Jooste of South Africa and B. Lemaga of CIP who are both members…
The North-Western European Potato Growers (NEPG) estimates the 2019 forecasted potato harvest between 27 and 27.3 million tons for the five leading potato countries. This is three per cent more than the five-year average and 12 per cent more than last year. At this stage, the estimations are mainly based upon trial digs. Nevertheless, the NEPG stresses this is an estimation — final trial digs will take place at the beginning of October — and…
Over the last two years, HZPC has built a new business development team for the North American market. Led by Mr. Jeff Scramlin, this team focuses efforts in the food service and retail sectors. The existing HZPC Americas operations team in Charlottetown, P.E.I., Canada, successfully produces, sells, and licences HZPC potato varieties in the United States and Canada. HZPC Americas Recently, a corporate decision was made to merge the functionalities of both…
In July, although the area in the five largest Northwestern potato countries increased 2.2 per cent towards 611,190 ha — a record — the NEPG (North-Western European Potato Growers) is not convinced they are heading for average yields. The condition of the crop is good, however, in almost all NEPG-growing areas, drought and water levels are the biggest concern for the growers. More Potato Area With the exception of Great Britain, all…
The World Potato Congress is extremely pleased to announce that Syngenta has become its newest Sustaining Partner. WPC President Cools stated: “The work of the World Potato Congress Inc. is only possible thanks to the engagement of a dynamic board of directors and international advisors, but most of all because of the long-term relationship with our Sustaining Partners that are investing in the activities of our organization. The World Potato Congress is…