UK Trip Brings Opportunity to Share Ideas

UK Trip Brings Opportunity to Share Ideas

UK Trip Brings Opportunity to Share Ideas

I’m KayDee Gilkey with the U.S. Potato Update.

The United States Potato Board’s CEO and the executive committee grower-leaders recently attended the World Potato Congress held in Edinburgh Scotland. While there they took the opportunity to meet with fellow growers, shippers and retailers to learn more about the UK’s fresh potato industry advancements.

USPB President and CEO Tim O’Connor shares some his observations.

O’Connor: “Key things that we can observe that are different is their emphasis on varieties. Retailers market specific varieties of potatoes to consumers very similar to the way apples are marketed here by specific varieties but with more package emphasis and point of purchase emphasis around the potato varieties and the different functionalities of them.”

O’Connor says that UK shippers have invested substantially for environmental and sustainability additions to their operations that are also very bottom-line orientated.

O’Connor: “We saw an anaerobic digester installed at a packing facility that all the waste potatoes go into the digester and it generates electricity to run the plant. We saw another facility that had a water-filtration system that was really at the level that some communities would have to recycle their water.”

This was the U.S. Potato Update brought to you by the United States Potato Board, maximizing return on grower investment. I’m KayDee Gilkey on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
 

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