New potato cultivar evaluation for McCain Foods (PT08018)

This is a final research report from Hort Innovation’s historical archives. Please note that as these reports may date back as far as the 1990s, the content and recommendations within them may be superseded by more recent research.

What was it all about?

The evaluation and identification of new French fry cultivars with improved processing and agronomic characteristics adapted to different production regions of Australia was essential for the French fry Potato Industry to remain competitive, profitable and sustainable.

New Varieties needed to have yield and French fry processing parameters equal to or greater than existing processing varieties. Cultivar selection required the variety to have improved specific French fry quality parameters and show stable high yields. Varieties needed to be efficient or required reduced inputs such as chemical and fertilisers to have minimum impact on the environment and reduce the costs of production.

McCain Foods (Aust) Pty Ltd and Safries Pty Ltd in partnership with the McCain growers groups in Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania and the Safries grower group in South Australia along with matching funds from Hort Innovation (which was then Horticulture Australia Limited) tested potential new potato lines for the French fry industry over the previous twelve months to this report's publication. Trials were conducted in Ballarat (Victoria), Forthside (Tasmania) and Penola (South Australia).

This project evaluated and identified potential new varieties for the French fry Industry. Under previous evaluation projects some varieties were selected as potential replacements and these continued to be evaluated.

Further evaluation of breeding lines across production environments was needed to determine their potential for commercialisation. It was planned that this project was continued during the season after this report's publication with the aim of carrying out further evaluation of some highly potential varieties. Assessments of advanced cultivars had shown very good results and the likely chance of a replacement cultivar was high, with one Australian breed cultivar in early stages of commercialisation.

Historically the researchers used a replicated trial site in N.S.W at Berrigan to assess early delivery schedule cultivars. However during season 2008 - 2009 water allocations in the Riverina were minimal therefore thier early delivery crops were not planted taking away the opportunity for a trial site.