Surfing the British Potato CULTIVATION AND TECHNOLOGY Warmstore for optimum warming up We have known the term Coldstore for storage for some time, but we now also have a Warmstore. Crop Systems, manufacturer of storage technology, has developed a storage concept to slowly warm up table potatoes from mechanical cooling using as little energy as possible. It is called Warmstor, without an e at the end. It involves a shed for box storage, which is provided with a number of separate storerooms to warm up potatoes in the best possible way. The method is as follows: a forklift driver removes the boxes that need to be warmed up from the big coldstore a few days earlier. He moves these boxes into one of the warming-up storerooms. The forklift has a sensor which, as soon as the store door opens, activates the warming up system. After four days, these potatoes have reached the temperature they need for delivery. As soon as the forklift driver empties the storeroom, the sensor on the forklift deactivates the warming up system. In this way, companies with large storage facilities and daily deliveries can be flexible in their operations. Incidentally, it is also possible to work the other way around. Upon arrival, warm potatoes can be cooled down to storage temperature in the same storerooms. So far, this was the simple version. According to Crop Systems, the system boasts many more possibilities. For more information, please consult the internet, but now go to www.cropsystemsltd.com. Who, what and where in the Potato Council Who and what are hidden behind the scenes of the organisation that is able to put together a show like British Potato and that knows how to launch such an enormous potato campaign? Where did they get the money from and who is responsible for the input of information? The answer to these questions comes from Mark Prentice, seed potato manager at the Potato Council. The Potato Council (PC), previously the British Potato Council (BPC), is part of the Agricultural Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) sector organisation, explains Prentice. The annual budget of the organisation amounts to over 6 million British pounds, which comes to over 6,6. million euros. This enormous amount is raised by the potato growers and potato merchants. Growers annually pay a levy to the Potato Council of 49 British pounds per hectare and traders pay 17 pence per ton of sold potatoes. With this money, the organisation carries out research projects, organises shows and does marketing with the help of creative campaigns that focus on the consumer. ‘It is of the utmost importance that we fight off the competition with other foods such as rice and pasta’, a very eager Prentice tells us. ‘Younger people in particular – as compared to older people – are not eating enough potatoes in our opinion. Yet the British still manage to eat an annual 94 kilograms per head of the population and that is over 10 kilogram more than what the average Dutch person eats. In addition, the Potato Council provides market information and is responsible for the promotion of seed potatoes. Partly as a result of the Erwinia problems in the Netherlands, the Scottish seed potato market is growing, the seed potato manager tells us. Figures from the last few years show that what the Dutch market is losing, the Scottish market is gaining. In total, 90,000 tons of seed potatoes were exported last year and this year’s figure will again be higher, according to Prentice. ‘To keep Scotland free of Erwinia, the region has been designated “a protected plant health region”. ’ This means that all fresh planting stock has now a quarantine status and is consequently produced in vitro. ‘Our Scottish seed potatoes are becoming pretty popular, especially in North Africa and the Middle East’ claims Prentice. Potato World 2010 • number 2 21 Pagina 20
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