News on Research from Belgium

Brussels marked the 2nd International Day of Potato with a conference and exhibition, highlighting the crop's role in food security, sustainability, and innovation. Stakeholders called for supportive EU policies to boost the potato value chain.

The breeding company Averis, located in Veendam, has joined Breeders Trust as a shareholder. Breeders Trust supports participating companies in protecting and enforcing plant breeder rights and contract terms.

GB Potatoes has been welcomed participation from all in the potato supply chain, including growers, packers, processors, seed growers, research organisations, independent advisors, and ancillary businesses.

Europatat is raising concerns about the draft report on Plant Reproductive Material (PRM) which is set for a vote in the European Parliament’s Plenary during the week of 22 April.

Nothing as Belgian as a tasty packet of fries. But sustainably producing fries requires a lot of knowledge, development and collaboration with companies and researchers.

Europatat, the European Potato Association, is calling upon researchers and industry professionals to share information about ongoing research, and any other related activities which will help to control the spread of wireworms in potatoes.

Europatat is proud to become an active partner of a new EU Horizon Europe project called PATAFEST that aims at protecting potato plants by means of pest spreading and resistance characterisation, preharvest treatments, and post-harvest solutions.

The General Assembly of the European Snacks Association (ESA) has elected Sandy Iagallo, Senior Director Regulatory & Wellbeing Europe at Kellogg Europe, as its new President for the term 2023-2025.

The Conference main theme was 'EUPPA driving sustainability across the potato processing sector'. It was the first gathering of the kind since the Covid-19 outbreak.

June has marked the end of Europatat’s Presidency for Mr Gilles Fontaine, who joined Europatat’s Board in 2014 as Treasurer and became President in 2018.

How do different potatoes respond to heat, drought, and waterlogging stresses? EU-backed scientists are investigating the changes that make potatoes resilient or susceptible.

A lot of water, energy and nutrition is lost during the processing of vegetables and potatoes. Scientists from Ghent University, together with partners Flanders' FOOD, Howest, VITO and Vlakwa, are therefore reviewing the processing process from A to Z in the VEG-i-TEC research center.

Europatat is part of an international consortium involved in the research project ADAPT (“Accelerated Development of multiple-stress tolerAnt PoTato”), which aims at developing new strategies to make potatoes fit for the challenging growth conditions of the future.

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.

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.

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.

TOMRA Food is reaching out to vegetable processors everywhere to help them tackle the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Starch Europe today welcomed the much-anticipated publication of the European Commission’s EU Farm to Fork Strategy. Starch Europe and its members strongly support the Commission’s climate neutrality ambition and the important role a more sustainable food system plays to achieve that objective.