By Henry Stenning and Andrew Barber Sustainable Vegetable Systems (SVS) – progress The Sustainable Vegetable Systems (SVS) programme continues apace, with all four workstreams making significant progress, despite the extra obstacles created by Covid-19 lockdowns. Workstream 1 – the intensive sampling programme – at Plant & Food Research’s (PFR) Hawke’s Bay and Lincoln research stations…
By Gemma Carroll, PNZ Comms & Extension Officer. It has been a mixed bag of weather this Spring and Summer, with a couple of rain events challenging growers in Horowhenua and Canterbury. NZ agronomists and growers in our main growing regions had the following to say about the 2021-2022 potato season. In Canterbury, Roger Blyth,…
by Gemma Carroll: Potatoes NZ communications and engagement officer. The New Zealand potato industry saw supply chain disruptions, changing protocols for health and safety and a polarization of political and health ideologies in the last 21 months of the pandemic response. NZ potato growers across the country have been under immense pressure due to imminent…
Edited extracts from the SVS Grower Baseline Report. The full report can be read here https://potatoesnz.co.nz/rd-project/emissions-project/ The Sustainable Vegetable System (SVS) project contracted social research provider FOLKL to ensure grower opinions and needs are central to the outcomes of the programme. Here we outline the insights from this baseline survey. The 3 goals of the…
By Kerry Hughes. Alex McDonald Ltd (Almac) was established in 1941 and celebrates 80 years this year. Although always trading in potatoes it wasn’t until the 1970’s that Alex’s sons Colin and Alistair established the Pathogen Tested (PT) Seed Potato Scheme in a joint venture with the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) and…
This World Potato Market article is republished with permission from Cedric Porter , Editor and Chief of the WPM report. He wrote this for the World Potato Congress in response to an EAT-Lancet report from, which can be found here https://eatforum.org/eat-lancet-commission/eat-lancet-commission-summary-report/ The key takeaway for NZ Potato Industry is that potatoes will play a major…
Potato rosti from Niki Bezzant This is a classic brunch dish; often served topped with eggs or smoked salmon (or both). It’s super simple with just one ingredient (beautiful NZ potatoes), and it’s easy to make at home. A recipe is not really necessary, so here it is in bullet-point form. Choose waxy or boiling…
We were lucky enough to successfully run a Covid-ready event in Ashburton on Friday the 13th August. We are relieved we kept the delegate registrations capped at 100, in order to mitigate the risk of becoming a super-spreader event. Sadly Level 4 lockdown was called before we made it to Pukekohe, however read on to…
NGĀ KAITIAKI O NGĀ TAEWA – GUARDIANS OF THE POTATOES By Gemma Carroll. This winter Potatoes New Zealand teamed up with Eat New Zealand for the Feast Matariki campaign by sponsoring The Great Taewa Hunt. We envisaged connecting with local communities and smaller growers who are kaitiaki for the taonga that is Māori potatoes. Taewa…
Understanding soil nitrogen Soils in New Zealand typically contain between 5000 and 9000 kg of total nitrogen (N) per hectare in the top 30 cm. Most (97-99 %) of the total soil N exists as a component of soil organic matter called the organic nitrogen fraction(included as part of Total N in Figure 1), which includes…
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