Potato Review

44 POTATO REVIEW JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2023 INTERNATIONAL EPA decisions on insecticides THE Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) in New Zealand has released its decisions regarding diazinon, fenamiphos and methamidophos, which are all used in insecticides. The key points are: • The approval for fenamiphos is unchanged and will expire on July 1st, 2023 • The approval for methamidophos has been extended by one year to July 1st, 2024. • After this date, growers will not be allowed to use either of these. Any excess product they have left at these dates must be disposed of by July 1st, 2025. ‘Abolish VAT on seed’ call THE Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture wants 16% VAT on potato and other vegetable seeds abolished. The country’s Ministry of Agriculture has said it will initiate talks with the Treasury with a view to having the 16% value-added tax (VAT) abolished to make Kenya’s produce competitive in the market amid cheap imports. Agriculture and Livestock Principal Secretary Harry Kimtai said the tax has made it expensive for growers to engage in profitable business, especially in the wake of cheap imports from countries such as Tanzania. Talks have been held with the Seed Trade Association of Kenya (STAK) on how the issue can be addressed. Harry said the high cost of seed locally has seen some growers source the commodity from neighbouring countries despite uncertainty over whether they are up to standard. NZ growers oppose emissions levy PNZ (Potatoes New Zealand) and Vegetables NZ recently made a combined submission expressing concerns about government proposals regarding He Waka Eke Noa and opposing a new grower emissions levy. He Waka Eke Noa (HWEN) is a partnership between industry, Māori and Government seeking to implement a framework by 2025 to reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and build the agriculture sector’s resilience to climate change. In 2021 PNZ carried out an industry consultation on HWEN and more recently on the Government’s recommendations on agricultural pricing of emissions. Fifteen key queries came up during the consultation which have now been inluded in the submission. Growers object to being brought into the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), stating that it won’t be e¢ective or practical in potato-growing. Vegetable and potato growers collectively account for only 0.032% of all agricultural emissions and they feel they should be exempt, along with other minor contributors. Growers feel the proposed emissions levy on fertiliser doesn’t create any meaningful additional economic incentive for change in fertiliser use for their sector, while limiting their options and increasing their cost of living whilst carrying an administrative cost out of proportion to the value of the levy itself. They state that if vegetable growers are brought into the agricultural emissions pricing regime, the emissions levy on fertiliser should be administered entirely by the fertiliser companies (processors) themselves, and included in the price of fertiliser Other sectors such as poultry have been granted exemptions from the Emissions Pricing on the basis of being “minor-emitting sectors”. French company expands with further acquisition The DUBRULLE group, which supplies handling and storing solutions for potatoes and is based in the Hauts De France region in France has acquired French supply chain company, SAALTO. SAALTO is a pioneer in automatically managing, monitoring and automatically tracking, providing real-time information on stocks and movement. Since 1973, the DUBRULLE group has been a major player in the French potato sector. It bought the DOWNS machinery brand in 2006, and shortly after constructed a new factory in Sainte Marie Cappel, northern France. In 2021 DOWNS CropVision®, its first optical sorter for unwashed potatoes was launched.