News
Welcome to 2019.
Summer Season – Overall there’s been lots of rain across the industry regions, to keep our crops growing. The wet season has also meant the occurrence of Black Leg (bacteria) & Powdery Scab, which has been a concern in some areas.
Read NZ Summer Potato Industry Update here.
Food Act and GAP certification deadline approaching.
MPI’s deadline to register for the Food Act is 28 February, 2019. If you are NOT registered for the Food Act by this date, but are still trading, your business will be operating illegally.
To ensure that you will meet the Food Act deadline via NZGAP, you must register here before 1 February 2019.
If you are unsure about how the Food Act applies to your business, check out the MPI “Where do I fit?” tool.
AUSVEG are sending a delegation to visit us, in the Canterbury Region and they will attend some of our field walks there. They are holding a combined industry dinner at The Lakehouse, in Ashburton, with guest speaker John Sarup. Your invite is here.
Education, Resources, Forms
A variety of recently revised forms can be found on our website for membership, new grower registration, levies and seed grower certification. If you have any problems downloading these, feel free to email Gemma for assistance.
A reminder that we have a number of recently revised & useful resources on our portal, including the very popular TPP poster (updated). Be patient with the Portal link, as it loads very slowly, if you have any problems email Gemma directly with your order.
We have started to add Technical Bulletins (TBs) under our R&D heading on the website, these replace what used to be called the Potato Updates in the past. The latest bulletin is a very useful nutrient management paper from a book co-written by the VR&I Board, Plant & Food Research and the Fertiliser Association of NZ. Read the Potato Chapter TB No.3 here.
Other recent technical bulletins advise on Mesh Covers for TPP control TB No.1 and our PCN Fact Sheet TB No.2.
Events
PNZ Field Walks 2019
13th February Canterbury (timed nicely with the AUSVEG visit & dinner).
20th February Pukekohe & Matamata
27th February Manawatu
Covering topics such as TPP, Tamarixia, Teralytic Probes, Regreening & Powdery Scab.
FIET – Food Industry Enabling Technologies Forum
19th February Dunedin
Dr. Iain Kirkwood, PNZ Technical Manager, will be speaking at this forum and the PEF technology for processors and liberibacter will be looked at closely. A valuable workshop for processors and growers. There may be options to observe via internet, so if you cannot attend in person please advise us.
Full schedule here.
Horticulture Industry Forum Dates:
10th April Wellington
2nd October Tauranga
5th December Wellington
Horticulture Conference Dates
31st July-2nd August Mystery Creek
Potatoes New Zealand Conference & AGM
13th -15th August Christchurch
Registrations will open late May & an early bird will be available until 28th June.
It’s a big year for The Chip Group and associated businesses, as we have two industry awards to present at the conference. Read more here and make sure our processing clients are qualified to enter for the awards.
Hort Connections Convention
24th – 26th June Melbourne
Open for registration and promising to be a great opportunity to connect with our friends over the ditch, share R & D, market trends, biosecurity challenges and more. Register now here.
Exporting news and statistics
We’re on a steady upward trend and the export value is up on this time last year. See details in the links below.
Fresh potato exports 2019 weeks 1-3
Fresh potato exports weeks 47-52
Processed potato export November 2018
Processed potato export October 2018
Processed potato export September 2018
Processed potato export August 2018
Processed potato export July 2018
Research and Development
Bryan Hart and AS Wilcox have been hard at work on the Powdery Scab challenge. Read more here.
PEF Technology could a boost for processors industry. Read our story here.
TPP degree day graphs are being updated weekly, thanks to the team working at Plant and Food Research. You can follow the tracking on our website here. Tomato Potato Psyllid is one of the biggest pest challenges for potato and tomato growers.
Climate Change & Potato Production. Massey PHD researcher points to the future. Read about his work here.
Biosecurity
The PNZ & Biosecurity NZ joint response to the September 2018 PMTV incursion, is ongoing in the Canterbury region. Click to read the most recent PMTV stakeholder update here.
Powdery Scab challenges NZ and Australian Growers, with yields affected and in addition here in NZ, it is also the vector for PMTV. The latest Australian research project, provides some pointers for the industry. Read the AUSVEG article here which includes a link to the full project report.
In the media
PNZ CEO Chris Claridge was quoted in the December issue of World Potato Markets with his comments on the current industry climate. Read his positive spin on page 6 of the publication.
Chris also appeared in the latest edition of Rural News (then republished in Potato News) and he highlighted the sustainability and profitability of our industry.
Spuds for the greater Good. Niki Bezzant provides good reasons to eat more potatoes for health and for environmental sustainability. Full article is here. Niki also gives us some positive ideas around food trends in her PNZ blog here.
Wacky Food Idea. One of the stranger recipes I’ve seen. Leonard Nimoy, of Star Trek fame, loved these Banana Cheese Potatoes. No lie!
Revolutionising Potato breeding? ‘Inbreeding is bad and can lead to depression’ for potatoes, according to an article first published in nature genetics. As NZ Horticulture starts to feel the pressure, to open the door to genetic engineering and gene editing, we need to stay well informed of all possible outcomes. Story is here.
International News
There’s an APP for everything these days – keeping up with technology is a must. Identify plant diseases using your phone? Find out more on the latest development here.
Pink Floyd will be the music of choice, one would think, as China lands on the dark side of the moon with potato seed to plant. Full story here.
Finding a whole new meaning to ‘couch potato’ and ‘chip board’. See how the latest technology can be applied to materials for construction, by-product applications and sustainability, thanks to a young British engineering entrepreneur. Full story here.
PNZ Social Media Links
Over 7,000 people and organisations now follow us on social media to keep up with the latest New Zealand and international potato news. Send us your news and events so we can publish them via our social media channels.
Instagram – Potatoes_NZ
Facebook – Potatoes NZ
Facebook – The Chip Group
Twitter – Potatoes NZ
Twitter – Chris Claridge