Growing for Gold!

As we head into the later part of the potato storage season, potato growers are drawn towards planning next season’s crop.

Seed deliveries are well underway, and as I write this the planting of ‘new potato’ crops is underway in the earliest areas of Cornwall. For Chipping potato growers, planting of early season varieties like Accord won’t take place for another month. But seed still needs to be chitted, land prepared, and equipment checked, so there’s plenty happening. All the while, they are still working their way through the storage crop, and in these current wintry conditions it’s vital that they monitor their stores to avoid any chilling of the potatoes which will massively affect the fry colour of the sample.

The varieties delivered will also start to change, with a shift into those that hold fry colour more reliably up till the new crop arrives. Established names like Agria and Markies will become more available, also Meijer’s recent addition Lady Anna –making a name for itself as a variety with consistent fries along with a superb taste and bite.

To find a new variety for late season frying, it presents potato breeders with many specific challenges - a consistent, reliable fry colour the obvious starting point when we are making selections. The variety needs to remain dormant in store, also not be prone to bruising when handled at harvest and in these cold conditions. Many other challenges for growers to avoid field issues like slug and wireworm damage are a factor – basically everything required to deliver you a clean, low waste, reliable sample. With chemical use such a big issue for growers, with limited products available and wanting to reduce their use anyway, Meijer Potato are determined to find solutions. Lady Jane is a variety that is receiving great feedback from chip shops as a tasty chip that looks great too, farmers are loving the blight resistance and tolerance to heat and drought too, and also trade experts who commented recently in the UK press (type in the link to read more) inews.co.uk/news/why-super-potatosave-british-fish-chip-shops-1922818

Meijer Potato are also trialing many new varieties with what we hope can provide even better solutions for the future of the industry. We look at hundreds of thousands of seedlings annually, hoping that maybe one or two are suitable. All are tested to look at their qualities against the current market leaders, stored in different climate chambers to test them in various conditions, challenged to grow well in fields prone to pests and diseases, we then bring only the best to you, hoping that they can make our favourite takeaway even better!

Meijer Potato UK will once again be present at the FryIT event in Peterborough on 5th March, with Lady Jane samples for you to try, we can’t wait to see everyone again!

PG Chips have been lovingly producing the finest pre-prep chippy chips for you since the year 2000. They help you to reduce overheads, take the worries of buying potatoes away along with the preparation of them, maximising shop space, with no waste to dispose of & 100% yield in every bag. Also no worries about staff turning in for preparation and holidays to cover or illness etc.

We are pleased to announce that not only are we a sponsor of the National Fish & Chip Awards 2023, but we also serve 6 of this years nominated top 40, and amazingly have three shops in the Top 10! Good Luck to them all in the final on February 28th.

We have invested each year in new equipment, vehicles, facilities, and staff. This has resulted in a state-of-theart production facility with full metal detection, starch recovery system, vacuum packaging, potato waste recovery with compacter and holding refrigeration along with all our vehicles being refrigerated. All our potato waste is collected and processed into animal feed. Local authorities will be getting stricter with what goes down your shops drain in the future and will require specialist equipment that is likely to not only be expensive but will also leave you with approximately 5kg waste from each 25kg bag to then dispose of!

With a six-day shelf life if stored correctly in a refrigerator and deliveries in most cases taking place three times per week, you should never have any waste.

Although we are not currently available nationwide WATCH THIS SPACE. We currently deliver to the following areas.

Greater Manchester

Lancashire

Merseyside

Cheshire

Yorkshire

Humberside

North Staffordshire

North Derbyshire

North Wales

Cumbria

Scottish Borders

Lothian

Some of our Award-Winning & Nominated Shops

Mark Drummond Town Gate FisheriesOutstanding Achievement Award Winner 2018, NFFF Quality Award Champion

Award 2018, Healthy Eating Fish & Chips

Award Winner 2015 and 2017

As we are a busy but small shop space is at a premium. Using PG Chips freed up valuable space previously used to do potato prep. If stored and used correctly they are identical quality to doing your own and no more expensive when you take staff time into account.

David Miller Millers, Haxby – Takeaway of the Year 2018

PG Chips are an excellent chip, very consistent and very sustainable. They fry very well and taste excellent. I find that they are very cost effective, saving you water, power, wages, cleaning, servicing of equipment and time. Paul is very proactive in making sure that his customers are happy. One of the best decisions we have made as a business.

Max Potts – Mr Chippy, York – Top 40 Shop 2023

PG run a fantastic service. Their pre-cut chips arrive fresh, and we could never go past their use by date so there is no

The product is fantastic, with the right variety chosen for the specific time of the season ensuring our customers are having the best chips possible. I’ve visited the factory and seen the state-of-the-art technology in place with great environmental standards. Faultless delivery operation: Always on time and bags rotated in the refrigerator. A product we highly recommend.

Dan Edwards from Chips @ No 8 – TOP 20, 2023 waste. One day we forgot to order they still delivered our average amount and helped us out immensely. They use great potatoes & varieties mainly from Isle of Ely, and we would recommend them to anyone.

Alex Papaioannou– Bearded Sailor, Pudsey – Top 10, 2023

The PG chips service is fantastic, they have never let me down and Garry (our delivery driver) has gone above and beyond to help us when we have needed it. The quality of the chips are really good and if we ever have any issues, Paul (the owner) deals with them swiftly.

David Nicolau - Auckley Friery – Top 10, 2023

We have been with PG Chips for around 3 years now and we have found them to be excellent. We used another company around 20 years ago when the concept was new, and they were not great. But a conversation with the great David Miller convinced me to look again. I am glad I did as with PG we have earned Fry Top 50 3 years on the go and are now Top 10 in the UK for the National Fish and Chip Awards.

There is no mess, no hours of prep with your hands in ice cold water and most of all we are saving on electricity and staff wages. Not forgetting the environmental waste issues preparing your own chips in house brings. We have found the switch to pre-cut chips to be ultimately cost neutral to our business. We wouldn’t go back to doing our own in-house prep.

Jonathan France – The Fish Bank, Sherburn – Top 10, 2023

I’ve been using PG Chips for over 3 years.

When we opened, just over 4 years ago, we were rumbling and chipping our own potatoes. We were instantly much busier than I expected and soon realised I didn’t have the space, the time, nor the inclination to spend so much of my working day preparing chips and cleaning down. Switching to PG Chips has been the best business decision I’ve made to date. Their chips are always of the highest quality, delivery is fuss free and professional and Paul is always available for advice if I need it. I really can’t fault them.

“PG Chips are an excellent chip, very consistent and very sustainable. They fry very well and taste excellent. I find that they are very cost effective, saving you water, power, wages, cleaning, servicing of equipment and time”

David Miller Millers Fish & Chips Haxby

“When