Fenmarc’s campaign for its exclusively grown variety Rudolph has been recognised by the Grower of the Year awards. The campaign has been shortlisted for Trade Marketing Campaign of the Year, with the winners announced in London next month. The aim of the campaign for Fenmarc, which is based in Cambridgeshire but operates in Suffolk and other East Anglian counties, was to create standout for Rudolph from other potato varieties and position it as a commercially viable, versatile maincrop potato.

Potatoes can be presented in kid-friendly ways and are nutritious to boot. Montana nutritionist and author Dayle Hayes showed a variety of potato dishes being served in U.S. schools to growers Wednesday at the Washington-Oregon Potato Conference. Kids like potatoes, served baked, sectioned and spiced, or in a meatball cupcake presentation, she said. Hayes talked to growers about science, new regulations and about what they could do in moving forward to calm the criticism that potatoes aren't healthy.

En los Estados Unidos existe una serie de presiones ante el Gobierno de México, para introducir el cultivo de la papa en mal estado y enferma proveniente de ese país, lo que pone en riesgo la sanidad de ese cultivo y otras sonalaceas en nuestro país y en Sonora. Así fue afirmado por el presidente de la Asociación de Productores de Papa del Valle del Yaqui, Ricardo Parada Laborín, quien al ser entrevistado en el marco del Décimo Cuarto Congreso Internacional de Papa, resaltó que está comprobado y certificado científicamente que la papa de los Estados Unidos, presenta una serie de problemas sanitarios.

The North American potato industry continues to battle a misperception about the nutritional value of potatoes, according to the CEO of McCain Foods USA. Frank van Schyaak was in Brandon this week for Manitoba Potato Production Days, where he talked about stagnant domestic demand for spuds. He says McCain and other industry stakeholders are trying to counter this misperception.

A potato processing plant in Talas oblast will be put into operation in mid-November. For today all the equipment of the plant is installed. Total production capacity of the plant will be 20 tons of potatoes per day and 8 thousand tons in a year. Earlier in 2008, according to the agreement between the governments of Kyrgyzstan and India, it was decided to build potato processing plant in Talas.

Andrew Williams of root crop specialists Home Farm, Nacton, near Ipswich, reckons the business will be reducing its potato planted acreage this season by about 10 per cent. He says the decision was made last September and the lack of water was a major factor. “The shortage of water is a big worry,” says Mr Williams. North Norfolk potato grower Kit Papworth, of LF Papworth, says the current dry spell in the region is exceptional. “We have a reduced area of potatoes this year (drilling more oilseed rape instead), but I cannot say water availability was the sole reason. Poor contract prices and expensive land rents are more relevant,” he says.

While pleased that new guidelines issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for school meals do not restrict servings of potatoes, members of the potato industry and the state’s congressional delegation are still concerned that the spud is taking a back seat to other vegetables. U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Mark Szymanski, a spokesman for the National Potato Council, issued statements late Wednesday evening saying they were not entirely pleased with the final rules for school meals issued by the USDA earlier in the day.

El Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas IIB de la Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, en colaboración con INTA Balcarce, estudia cómo aumentar los polifenoles saludables en la papa, a fin de prevenir enfermedades complejas como cáncer o diabetes.Una dieta balanceada favorece la salud y previene enfermedades. Sin embargo, la dieta humana debería mejorar si queremos promover la calidad de vida, y existen varias maneras para conseguirlo. Una forma es tratar de cambiar los componentes de la dieta, otra es mejorar la calidad de los alimentos que la componen. Es aquí que surge el interés por los "alimentos funcionales", definidos como "aquellos que pueden proporcionar beneficios a la salud más allá de su valor nutritivo básico".

Le président de Pommes de terre Nouveau-Brunswick affirme que les consommateurs vont probablement devoir absorber une augmentation du prix des patates dans un proche avenir.

In October, the University of Idaho College of Agricultural and Life Sciences confirmed that Idaho’s potato growers faced a new challenge to the state’s most famous crop with the arrival of Zebra chip. The potato disease, named for the dark bands it produces in fried potato products, was initially found last summer in research plots and fields in Jerome and Twin Falls counties. In mid-January, Phil Nolte, University of Idaho Extension seed potato specialist at Idaho Falls, told growers that it’s too soon to know whether Zebra chip’s appearance in Idaho last year was a curiosity or the first sign of a coming scourge.