Little Demand Yet For Processing

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31659, 20 April 1968, Page 8

Little Demand Yet For Processing

At the moment there was not very much demand in New Zealand for potatoes for processing, Mr C. M. Driver, who is in charge of potato breeding at the Crop Research Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, told growers attending the potato machinery field day at Lincoln this week. But overseas, he said, there was a very big demand. In the United States some 35 per cent of potatoes went into

processing, in five years time it would be up to 50 per cent and in another 15 years or so 75 per cent. “It is starting to happen here,” Mr Driver added. There were quite a number of products that could be made. Work was being done on potato chip powders. “We are looking to the time when we will grow five, 10 or 20 times as many potatoes as we do today and export them in processed form," he said.

predation on these pests in a matter of two or three years. Mr East said that hedgehogs could be important predators of porina moth and caterpillars and also of grass grub beetles, and in some areas, including at Lincoln, mice had been reputed to eat porina in large numbers. The studies of Messrs East and Coleman are being supported by a research grant from the animal ecology division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and Mr East is also the holder of a University Grants Committee postgraduate scholarship.