News On French Fries and Potato Specialties

Many Canadian Potato growers have been dealing with a difficult two months with an unexpected supply of processing potatoes as a result of decreased sales of French fries, as sit-down restaurants shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Potatoes New Zealand is asking the New Zealand government to give urgent consideration to imposing short-term measures limiting the importation into New Zealand of heavily discounted frozen potato chips to avoid a food security threat.

Recently the international manufacturer of processed potato products Lamb Weston / Meijer announced to expand its business in order to meet the worldwide increased demand for potato flakes.

Theme: ‘Let’s connect the potato chain in the post-coronavirus world’. 2020 will go down in history as 'the year of the coronavirus pandemic'.

Tasmanian potato growers, who produce the bulk of Australia’s French fries, are having a disastrous harvest. Months of wet weather is making it impossible to get onto paddocks in parts of the state.

McCain Foods confirmed that layoffs have occurred at its Carberry potato processing plant in an email sent by the company to the Sun on Wednesday.

Belgians are being called upon to eat fries at least twice a week as more than 750,000 tons of potatoes are at risk of being thrown away.

The J.R. Simplot potato processing plant in Grand Forks has closed for two weeks, beginning on Thursday, April 23.

Restaurant closures have slashed demand although ‘chip sales have been great,’. French fry sales are down across North America as tens of thousands of restaurants have closed during COVID-19, which means the potato industry has to adapt quickly.

McCain Foods announced a donation of up to 20-million pounds of potato products to support Food Banks Canada, Second Harvest, and other local food security organizations across the country.

Cavendish farms haven’t laid off any staff yet because of the coronavirus (COVID-19), but a spokeswoman for the company says short-term layoffs are expected.

A leading food maker in Whittlesey is to furlough some staff after a slump in demand from restaurants and pubs forced to close by COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year, despite the difficult growing conditions as a result of the extreme heat and drought during both the 2018-2019 and the 2019-2020 seasons, the Belgian potato-processing industry once again improved the record for processed potatoes.

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has dealt a blow to a, particularly Belgian market, as the country begins to see declining sales of the humble fries.

In mainland Europe the widespread closure of restaurants and other food service outlets has meant that demand for processed potato products has fallen significantly.

Last week Lamb Weston presented its Fiscal Third Quarter 2020 Results. The company withdraws its Fiscal Year 2020 Outlook due to Uncertainty from the COVID-19 Pandemic’s Effect on Global Restaurant Traffic and Consumer Demand.

Due to COVID-19 the free market of potatoes has completely collapsed. The PCA/Fiwap and the Belgapom price quotation has been suspended because of a lack of transactions on the free market of potatoes.

While in response to COVID-19 risks restaurants in many regions are offering Drive Thru, takeout and/or delivery only, fast food Chain McDonald'sUK and Ireland has closed its restaurants altogether - including Drive Thru and take-away.