News on Potato Trade

Potato Cooperative Agrico held its central members’ meeting last week. At this meeting the 2014/2015 annual report was discussed.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries of Jamaica is to conduct research trials on 15 new varieties of imported Irish potato over the next three months, to determine their suitability for local conditions.

Dutch Potato Packer Nedato reports that its long term plan to improve potato quality pays off.

128 containers with around 4.000 tonnes of potatoes from Lebanon destined for Arab Gulf states have been stopped in Port Said, Egypt or have already been returned to Lebanon.

Based on a review of the recently released Trans-Pacific Partnership
(TPP) agreement text, the National Potato Council (NPC) strongly supports the trade deal reached with
Australia, Brunei, Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore
and Vietnam.

UK Seed potato exports are booming with big strides being made to open even more new markets.

American Lorain Corporation (NYSE MKT: ALN) an international processed snack foods, convenience foods, and frozen foods company based in Shandong Province, China, today announces that its French fries sales have contributed over 20 million RMB (about 3.1 million USD, 2.9 million EUR) to the revenues so far in 2015.

USDA Foreign Agricultural Service regularly reports on various agricultural topics around the world. In GAIN report CH15036 published in September 2015, the production of potatoes and potato products in China as well as imports and exports are highlighted.

Armenian potato growers are able to export up to 10 thousand metric tons of seed potatoes to Russia, Hrachya Berberyan, head of the Agrarian and Peasant Union said recently.

Potato production in Kurdistan has seen a 13-fold increase over the last 7 years and is well above domestic demand, allowing export of the surplus. Nevertheless, potatoes have to be imported later in the season, since local potato storage capacity is lacking.

In January-July 2015 Belarus increased potato export by more than 3.1 times, BelTA learned from Belarusian Agriculture and Food Minister Leonid Zayats during the opening of the first specialized exhibition Eurasian Potato on 20 August.

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.

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

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

Oregon potato-promoter Jim Cramer recently returned from what he called a “potato mission trip” to Vietnam. As the Southeast Asian economy expands and young people’s tastes become more global, the market for American products, like potatoes, has grown.

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

Speculation has arisen that Turkey may soon begin to purchase cheaper potatoes from its neighbor Iran.

Sri Lanka's Ministry of Finance announced April 25, 2015 that the import taxes on big onions and potatoes have been increased with immediate effect.