Potato News from Europe

Provisur, the leading industrial food processing equipment manufacturer headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, will present a range of unique machines at Fruit Logistica, the global fresh fruit trade show taking place from 5-7 February 2025, in Berlin, Germany.

Mark Hoogendoorn has joined Solynta as Sales Lead as per January 1, 2025. In this role, he is responsible for leading the Sales and Business Development team and expanding the commercial introduction of Solynta’s true potato seeds around the globe.

McCain Foods United Kingdom has revolutionized the frozen food aisle with its latest innovation—a potato snack that perfectly combines the crispiness of a crisp with the fluffiness of a fry. This bold new creation offers a fresh take on potato snacks, designed to deliver an irresistible texture and flavor experience.

Every grower and packer dreams of ideal growing conditions for perfect quality potatoes. Of course, the reality remains that quality changes every season. Still your customers will expect the same high standards. Labor shortages and strict demands add to the pressure, making it harder to run an efficient operation.

The aim was to create hydrophobic paper by exploiting the mechanical properties and water resistance of cellulose nanofibres, and so produce a sustainable, high-performance material suitable for packaging and biomedical devices. This involved a supramolecular approach, i.e. combining short chains of proteins (peptide sequences) that do not chemically modify the cellulose nanofibres.

The FAO Food Price Index (FFPI) stood at 127.0 points in December 2024, down 0.6 points (0.5 percent) from its November level, as decreases in the price indices for sugar, dairy products, vegetable oils and cereals more than offset increases in meat.

Royal Avebe achieved a performance indicator of EUR 118.62 (USD 128.57) per ton of starch potatoes in the challenging fiscal year 2023/2024, focusing on market-driven organization and strategic partnerships.

Roger & Roger has been honoured as the first SDG Pioneer in Wallonia by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). This prestigious title recognizes companies that have successfully integrated sustainability and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into their operations.

Fera scientists have made breakthrough progress with industry-steered wireworm research, highlighting where and when the pest is expected to pose the highest risk to arable and fresh produce crops over the next two decades. 

Todo parece indicar que la disponibilidad y la calidad serán superiores a las del 2024. En cualquier caso, la temporada no está libre de dificultades.

Haith, the UK’s leading manufacturer of vegetable handling machinery, has announced the retirement of Mick Haith after 47 years with the company. Mick’s interest in engineering began when he was seven, helping his father and company founder, George Haith, assemble machines.

The EU has reached an agreement to reduce tariff barriers with Mercosur (the bloc comprising Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, and Bolivia) concerning agricultural production over seven years.

APH Group, a distributor of agricultural equipment and installations, has acquired Kontrol-Pro in Serbia. This expansion will establish a new entity, APH Group Balkans d.o.o., which will take full responsibility for sales, service and distribution from Serbia.

Optical sorting of (seed) potatoes is becoming increasingly popular among farmers and packaging companies due to its benefits in efficiency, sorting quality, and cost savings. Innovative systems such as the Optica CS and Q from Tolsma-Grisnich have only increased growers' enthusiasm.

McCain Foods has executed a full packaging refresh across their GB and EU markets, redesigning their full portfolios to align with their latest wider brand refresh.

Do you require additional capacity? Are you facing challenges related to labor issues or inconsistent quality? The world of potato packers is challenging. Batch qualities vary, but customer demands remain consistently high.

Vultus AB (publ) and Agdir Drift AS have combined their sales activities and their joint offer is received by the market as expected: The two companies have entered into cooperation with the Latvian starch producer Aloja Starkelsen and the Norwegian part of Findus Group.

At the annual general meeting last month, Danish potato starch cooperative KMC presented a financial report with several notable accomplishments for the financial year 2023/24