Best in Show!

crop grown to keep everybody happy next season!

By Terry Jones

Meijer Potato UK recently made their second appearance at one of the biggest annual shows for the fish and chip shop trade – FRY IT 2023 held at the Peterborough Showground. It was again a prime opportunity for us to engage with the vital link in the food industry chain, the end producers. For all the time spent on variety development, and our dedicated growers producing seed and ware potatoes, if the crop we produce doesn’t work in the fryer – it’s just not worth it!

After our first time showing at FRY IT in 2022 we were very pleased with the feedback from shops who took away a number of our samples to test in their own shops. So we had to repeat the process and go large! Courtesy of Shropshire based fresh veg processors BEA FRESH, we came armed with a car boot full of fantastic fresh cut chips, almost a quarter of a tonne! We gave many of those away to shops on the days, and we hope they were enjoyed. If you can, please get in touch to let us know what you thought of them as your information is vital to our process as we strive to bring the best varieties to the market.

It was amazing to hear once again of the love for our established storage potato Lady Anna. Even in such a difficult storage season they are keeping and frying well, we’re pleased to report that even more growers are on board this year so there will hopefully be enough

The samples we used on the day (we cooked over 250 samples for you to taste) were our exciting new variety Lady Jane. Bred as a cross with established premium variety Agria, it provides all the same qualities in taste texture and fry appearance, but also offers growers advantages in terms of disease resistance, storability and reduced use of fertilisers and spray chemicals.

Feedback on the chips was so good that we ended the day with 5 other stands at the show taking samples and also cooking Lady Jane to complement their own products – high praise from other experts in the trade!

We hope everyone enjoyed the taste of the Meijer Potato range. Many thanks to Friars Pride for having us at the event, and to everyone who took the time to stop and chat, taste our chips and offer vital feedback.

We look forward to seeing you all again at FRY IT 2024!