News on Food Trends from Belgium

The Almond Company purchased a TOMRA 5C premium optical sorter which has been operating at its Madera, California facility for the past six months with excellent results.

Mathijs Peters, responsible for EU Corporate Affairs at PepsiCo was elected President of the European Snacks Association asbl (ESA) for a two-year term. He succeeds Dr. Rolf Nilges, Intersnack’s Director of Research & Development and External Affairs.

Declaración de Copa-Cogeca, Europatat, Euroseeds y Starch Europe sobre las nuevas técnicas genómicas en el mejoramiento de la patata.

On 10 June the European potato community virtually gathered for the Europatat Congress 2021. Under the slogan 'Stay
connected – new strategies for the potato sector'

We can now confirm that INTERPOM will go ahead! From 28 to 30 November 2021, the global potato sector will be able to gather in Kortrijk Xpo, as it used to do in the past.

Dewulf and Agrointelli have announced that they will be working together to explore the benefits of using autonomous machines in potato cultivation. A first project will see the combination of the autonomous Robotti platform with a 4-row Miedema CP 42 cup planter.

Lamb Weston / Meijer's commitment to preserving nature, and its resources, while caring for neighbors contributes to their overall growth and success. These shared virtues and values are just another reason why their partnership with TOMRA Food makes for a perfect match.

According to Vandamme, mechanical cooling is an excellent basis for long-term storage of potatoes without loss of quality. In addition, cooling, in combination with 1,4SIGHT, is a suitable alternative to chlorpropham as a sprout inhibitor.

Good news for the potato sector: the European Commission has recently formally set the value of 0.4 ppm as the temporary maximum residual limit (LMRt) in potato (products).

Europatat, the European Potato Trade Association, is excited to announce that the 2021 edition of its annual Congress will be held on Thursday, 10th of June in a virtual format.

No one could miss it in the media last year: the COVID-19 pandemic hit the Belgian potato sector hard.

The total organic area in the European Union (EU) was 13.8 million hectares in 2019, corresponding to 8.5% of the total utilized agricultural area. This represents an increase of 46% between 2012 and 2019.

RUCIP European Committee -  the organisation that looks after the rules and practices of the Inter-European Trade in Potatoes - has a new internal organisation and new leadership.

Revolutionary Upgrades to Sensors and Insight Tools of the Sorter Lead to Better Bottom Lines for Processors.

The NEPG (North-Western European Potato Growers) estimates that the total harvest will be 27.9 million tons this season if all potatoes in the ground will be indeed harvested. The harvest is later than usual with all the risks involved.

Following its successful launch last year by TOMRA Sorting Recycling, TOMRA Insight is now also being made available to TOMRA Mining customers, TOMRA Food and Compac, part of the TOMRA Food family. For all these industries, the platform is enhanced by new features and functionalities.

Last week, the North-western European Potato Growers (NEPG) association announced their harvest estimate for the 2020/2021 season.

An overview of the Belgian agricultural landscape. The cropmap shows the main crop type on each individual field cultivated in the 2020 growing season and is openly available via an interactive online viewer.