Potato News from Asia

For a limited time, the Lawson convenience-store chain in Japan is stocking potato chips flavored with blue cheese from Hanabatake Bokujo, a well-known dairy producer from the far north of Japan.

Snack food company Calbee is playing with fire by expecting people to swallow their new concept potato chips: 'Wet Potato, Moist Mild Soy Sauce Flavor.'

Despite a fresh crop arriving at the wholesale market in Vashi (Mumbai area), retail prices of potatoes show no decline

Potato production in Dolakha - a district in Nepal severely affected by the 2015 earthquakes - has dropped sharply this year due to a prolonged winter drought.The drop in output has occurred when farmers in the district had been preparing to brand their products.

MHZPC, a 60:40 JV of Mahindra Agri Solutions Limited (MASL) and HZPC, today inaugurated its modern and state-of-the-art Aeroponic facility in Mohali. The new facility will produce the best of its kind seed potatoes by using an innovative process and latest technology.

Farmer, Hao Jinde, sold his potatoes, over 500 kilograms of them, for 600 yuan (US$88). Instead of setting up a stall on the street, this year Hao sold them to a store belonging to an online shopping platform in his village in Jingle County, a potato growing region in north China’s Shanxi Province.

With the help of Dutch technology and the Chinese people's own hard work, it is possible to double China's potato production as proposed in the current five-year plan, thus making potato a strategic bulk necessity for the Chinese population, said Jan Hak, a Dutch agri-food expert who has been engaged in Sino-Dutch agricultural cooperation in the past decades.

With potato consumption continuing to rise in Cambodia, the Agriculture Ministry unveiled last month a USD 200,000 research center it hopes will research and develop potato varieties most suited to the country.

For those who can’t get enough of pumpkin-flavored treats during Halloween, McDonald’s Japan is offering french fries covered in pumpkin and chocolate sauce.

Japan's largest fresh potato production region - Hokkaido - was struck by four typhoons in August of 2016. Approximately 24,000 ha of land received damaging levels of rain and flooding, including areas producing fresh potatoes.

It is a particularly unsuccessful year for North Korean agriculture. An inside source in North Korea has reported that torrential rains have affected the potato harvest in Unheung and Daehongdan in Ryanggang Province.

China will review anti-subsidy duties levied on potato starch imported from the EU as they are due to expire, the Ministry of Commerce announced on Wednesday.

Potato breeders at the International Potato Center (CIP) strive to develop marketable, resilient varieties with resistance to viruses and late blight that can be grown in an array of environments. An example...

To welcome autumn this year, the luxurious ice cream brand Häagen-Dazs brings back “Murasaki Imo”, or “Purple Potato” ice cream as it was revealed to be the third most loved flavor by fans.

As of September 5, Armenian farmers had harvested 210,000 metric tons of potato - 40,000 tons more than the year before, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. The land used for potato cultivation increased this year by 771 hectares to a total of 34,077 hectares.

On August 28, the Indian manufacturer of French Fries and Potato Specialties HyFun Foods held its grand formal inauguration of its new production plant.

In the last fiscal year (FY'16), Bangladesh's potato production hit an all-time-high of 9.47 million tonnes, the latest data showed. However cold storage facilities showed little progress compared to the higher output.

Bikanervala Foods Pvt. Ltd, which sells Indian sweets and savouries under the brand Bikano, has initiated discussions with private equity funds to raise as much as Rs.200 crore [PP: about 30 million USD], said two people familiar with the development.