Potato News from Oceania

Packaging and processing solutions provider, tna, is pleased to announce the appointment of John van Duin as its new group solutions manager – processing for Asia Pacific.

Potatoes are becoming more appealing to Australia’s innovative home chefs ('Eager Explorers') who are searching for the next exciting food trend, according to new consumer research.

Raymond Bowan's passion for potatoes and chips has seen Heartland Potato Chips take on the big boys at their own game. The company has just launched a new product range - flat cut chips, and has in New Zealand an 8 per cent market share.

The Papua New Guinean Government has instituted a ban on the import of selected Australian fruits and vegetables, including potatoes, effective from 11 August 2015.

UK chip brand, Tyrrells Potato Crisps Ltd, has acquired the Australian company Yarra Valley Snack Foods, producer of the Thomas Chipman Organic Chips range.

Fresh potatoes from New Zealand have been approved for export to Vietnam, providing a new export opportunity for growers.

Consumer research in Australia, Potato Tracker, has shown that Australian consumers prefer to purchase pre-packaged potatoes, with one to two kilogram packages as the ideal sizes.

Potatoes New Zealand chief executive Champak Mehta says the industry now has the potato psyllid well under control thanks to the knowledge gained through research.

Tasmania's fresh potato growers are building mainstream markets for unusual potatoes, all the way to Dubai.

The South Australian Potato Industry has received funding of $100,000 to enable a project to add value to potatoes which are graded-out due to size or shape and do not meet supermarket specifications.

It appears that many Australians don’t know their King Edwards from their Kennebecs, with the latest wave of the Potato Tracker consumer research project indicating that some people can’t name a single variety of potato, despite being the most commonly purchased vegetable commodity.

The new ‘purple bliss’ potato (grown in Tasmania and bred in Idaho) could become a family favourite now that it has begun producing commercial quantities, and 20 tonnes are making their way to supermarket shelves.

Bluebird Foods (New Zealand) is recalling batches of its bags of potato chips after finding some may contain plastic pieces.

McCain Foods has installed a new model potato peeler in Timaru, New Zealand. Timaru is the first of the company's factories in the world to use the new model.

The potato industry within Australia needs to come together to develop a plan and make potatoes appealing again from a marketing perspective, to solve the oversupply issues plaguing the industry. That is the message from grower Tony Cummaudo, of Cummaudo Farms.

McCain Foods Australia/New Zealand will spend up to $10 million dollars over the next two years upgrading onsite storage facilities and building a new packing line at the Smithton plant in Circular Head, Northern Tasmania.

This season, potato processor Simplot agreed to take surplus potatoes in Tasmania.

South Australia will actively pursue the Asian market for export of its crisping and seed potatoes.