Potato News from Belgium

The last 4 months was not easy going for the potato production in the NEPG region. But despite the difficult weather conditions, first yield estimates suggest a return to multi-year averages, with an estimated harvest of around 23 million tonnes of potatoes.

Visitors to Potato Europe, the outdoor exhibition for potato cultivation and machinery (Tournai, Belgium, 6-7 September), were the first to see in action the latest-generation TOMRA 3A sorting machine.

The 2023 edition of Potato Europe took place in Kain (Doornik), Belgium, last week. There, the full-liner in potato cultivation machines unveiled innovations in its product lines for both planting and storage.

Scientists confirmed this week that summer 2023 was the hottest season the world has ever seen by a large margin. Europe is warming almost twice as fast as the global average, at about 2.2C above pre-industrial times.

Toxic datura and nightshade weeds are more often harvested with crops such as green beans and baby leaf spinach, with the risk of getting into the final product. Today, advanced sorting technology is capable to deal with these challenges

In Emmeloord, with more than 60 employees, Eqraft designs, builds and maintains solutions for agricultural companies worldwide.

Crop.zone, a pioneering agtech company, just announced the successful launch of its revolutionary hybrid herbicide technology in Canada.

DOWNS has extended its range of optical potato sorters with the arrival of the I-CropVision®: a modular version of the CropVision®, it incorporates the same technology and numerous benefits.

In keeping with the four-yearly tradition, one of the potato sector's most important trade fairs, Potato Europe, will soon again be held in Kain (Doornik), Belgium. Among a range of innovations Dewulf will present at Potato Europe 2023, the main eye catcher will be an entirely new cup planter, named Certa 40 Integral.

One of the UK's leading manufacturers of packaging machinery will celebrate two significant milestones at this year's British Potato Show.

Scott decided to take the plunge and combine the best of the new components and systems now available with a new Palletiser that met the needs of Industry 4.0 and also incorporated the 'wish lists' of their current and future customers production and maintenance departments.

As part of a package of measures for a sustainable use of natural resources, the European Commission is proposing to set legally binding food waste reduction targets to be achieved by Member States (MS) by 2030.

The North-western European Potato Growers (NEPG) estimate the area of ware potatoes has increased by 2 to 3%. This is slightly higher than the record in 2020, when it was 522.000 ha for the EU-4 (NL, BE, DE, FR).

To actively take charge of its products on the used market, AVR is launching a dedicated team and accompanying brand for its used agricultural machinery: AVR Green Select.

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 sector-wide preference for potato planting and ridging in one working pass has never been greater. Dewulf has been responding to this demand for several years with the Smart-Float principle.

Alain Dufait became the new Managing Director of Lutosa the 1st of April. He succeeds Alain Duranleau, that held this role over the past 5 years.