Industry partnerships
Potatoes New Zealand has formed several partnerships with other industry organisations to improve the quality of New Zealand-grown potatoes and/or promote potatoes to consumers as a nutritious, delicious and environmentally friendly food.
The Chip Group
The food service industry (potato growers - represented by Potatoes New Zealand, chip manufacturers, equipment suppliers and oil makers) have teamed up with health and government organisations (The Heart Foundation, the Ministry of Health and New Zealand Food Safety Authority) to form The Chip Group.
The group is dedicated to making one of New Zealand's favourite foods healthier and tastier by improving the nutritional status of deep-fried chips and lowering their fat and salt content. Because New Zealanders eat about seven million servings of chips each week - which adds up to about 120,000 tonnes of chips each year - this is a very important aim!
The group also provides training for chip shop workers to create some consistency across chip shops by proposing and implementing industry standards, as well as sponsoring the annual 'Best Chip Shop Competition'. Find out more information about The Chip Group.
Plant & Food Research
When Crop and Food Research merged with HortResearch in 2008, Plant & Food Research was the result. Although the latest incarnation of this Crown Research Institute is new, Potatoes New Zealand's relationship with the historical organisation goes back more than 20 years when it (then known as DSIR) wanted to employ a potato breeding technician but couldn't afford their wages. The New Zealand Vegetable and Potato Growers' Federation (which became HortNZ) agreed to pay half the breeder's wages, and so the potato breeding programme began.
Potatoes New Zealand's involvement in the breeding programme is still going strong, and the organisation receives 10% of the royalties Plant & Food Research makes from selling the cultivars. This money is invested back into the breeding programme or into further research to find ways to improve potatoes.
More information about Plant & Food Research.
The International Potatoes Group
This group was recently formed through the collaboration of potato growing countries, including New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Canada. The group also has some input from the United States. The main reason for the group's formation was to improve the international industry's investment in science and research, as well as find ways to boost the promotion of potatoes on an international scale. In New Zealand, the group met alongside the 7th World Potato Congress held in Christchurch in 2009. The members continue to hold video conferences (via Skype) every six weeks to discuss issues affecting potatoes internationally.
