By Niki Bezzant With sustainability a big focus around food – and rightly so – these days, we’re looking much more closely at how our food is produced, and how we can be more sustainable in our shopping habits. But another thing that’s just as important when it comes to lowering our impact on the…

By Gemma Carroll New Zealand Potato Growers have been presented with the challenge of meeting new standards for nitrate management, to control emissions affecting water quality. This has come about as a result of the government’s consultation on the National Policy Statement for Freshwater. This will without a doubt be the first of many recommendations…

Name: Peter ReynoldsLocation: Pukekohe and TuakauGrows: potato, onion, pumpkin production, kiwifruit orcharding and cattle fattening. History: T.A. Reynolds Ltd is our family owned farming business. We have been living and farming in the Pukekohe and Tuakau Districts for several generations. We are not one big farm but are farming on many blocks, situated about one…

Don’t just eat it – Compleat it! How smashing, mashing and hashing your spuds can lead the way in helping New Zealanders reduce food waste and combat climate change. Consider the humble spud. Who doesn’t love them and their versatility? As Samwise declares in the Lord of the Rings: ‘Po-tay-toes! Boil ‘em, mash ‘em, stick…

By Glenys Christian Powdery scab is the biggest economic constraint for the Australian potato industry, Dr Calum Wilson, from the Tasmania Institute of Agriculture, told the Inta-Ag Conference in Pukekohe recently. It causes 10% to 20% yield losses and is estimated to have an economic cost of A$30 million a year. “And there are not…

By Heather Chalmers Supermarket chain Countdown says its biggest selling potato is still the one with the least flavour – white washed potatoes – providing an opportunity for growers. Countdown business manager vegetables Grant Robinson said potatoes were a pantry staple, with price still consumers’ number one consideration. Customers also preferred that their potatoes were…

Every year The Chip Group aims to train 240 food service providers, with the goal of reducing fat/oil content, salt content and serving size. These desired outcomes have 2-fold benefit; to improve the health profile of our biggest processing product and improve business profitability for the end user of the product. Past research by co-funder…

By Niki Bezzant Do they use Roundup on potatoes? This was the question hotly debated recently on Newstalk ZB, as part of a broader conversation (in which I was interviewed) about pesticides and chemicals used on food crops. The host, Simon Barnett, swore he had ‘heard somewhere’ that potatoes were sprayed with Roundup (glyphosate) and…