Green Efforts

Folks, I have been remiss!

In my post of Friday, March 13, I listed the items of importance to potato processors, based on many discussions I have had over the past months. I need to add one item to that list: carbon footprint reduction, aka green efforts, aka minimizing effect on the environment, aka maximizing sustainability. We, as designers and manufacturers of processing equipment have responsibility in this area based on two maxims:

• We have the responsibility to reduce overall cost of ownership of our solutions continuously, and a major part of that is reduction in facilities consumption: electricity, water and compressed air (another form of electrical power); plus reduction in good product loss and other waste. This has its own direct payback.
• We have the responsibility to do our part to ensure that life as we know it on this planet continues. Sustainability. Taking the initiative to preserve natural resources, help the plants and animals with which we share the earth to thrive, ensure that the world remains a pleasant place to live for our children and grandchildren. This category does not always have direct payback, but it is a burden we must bear seriously if we want to be in business for the long term.

Short story: we are all in this together!

Perhaps in times past, sustainability has not been in the forefront of our thoughts. No longer! All of our efforts going forward will have sustainability as a major facet of focus. Also, there are areas where we have already been doing the right thing in reducing natural resource consumption; we need to do a better job in letting others know what we have done.

We also need to do some proactive thinking about how to get after the major energy consumption facets of the processed potato business. How do we get more for less from blanching, frying and freezing? Some of the answers may lie in process/equipment developments, some in product categories where processing requirements are reduced.

But in the end, the message is clear: We must all work together on sustainability. When we do, great things can be accomplished!

Tim

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GMOs, Again!

Finally!

A bit of a voice of reason! And from the UK? Wow! This from a nation where, if a policeman (bobby) sees a criminal running away, says, "Stop! Or I'll... shout 'stop' louder!"

Seriously, this is about genetically modified organisms, "GMOs". Check out the article: http://myprocessexpo365.packexpo.com/NST-4-50206090/UK-Government-Launches-Bid-to-Allay-Fears-Over-GM-Crops.aspx

The UK government is doing the sane thing: trying to use science to answer a question that science is eminently equipped to answer. They are making a valiant attempt to cut out all the emotion, fear mongering, hypersensitivity and hoopla surrounding this issue. The question is whether GMOs are safe to eat. The answer is: scientists will find out, and let us all know the facts. That is, if the activists let us.

As I mentioned in my blog of last May 12 (http://potatoprocessing.key.net/2008/05/gmos.html), there are criminals out there who think they are saving society by destroying test plots of GMO crops. These trespassers dig up gardens by night to keep GMOs from being evaluated for safety. If they continue, we may never find out the truth, because they won't give us the chance.

I am disgusted by the behavior of these hoodlums. Fighting to prolong ignorance seems to be self-fulfilling. Now this article implies this vandalism has happened multiple times ("...all projects have been vandalised by opponents...").

Maybe the bobbies should be shouting louder!

Tim

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On What Is Important

I thought I would give all you processors a little feedback.

I've been talking with many of you, and thought I would compile a list of what I think will be your areas of focus and investment over the coming months, based on the current economic environment.

1) Yield. This might seem boring to some- haven't we focused on this long enough? The answer is no. Current state-of-the-art frozen potato lines produce only 700g of product per kilo of raw. Most lines produce less than 600g. Heck, 60g is lost in the peeling step alone! This facet is the easiest payback- reduce the amount of raw product you must buy in order to fulfill demand for your products. Easy money. Yes, we've spend lots squeezing things to get to where we are. But there is lots of room for improvement.

2) Elimination of foreign materials (FM). I wrote a fair bit about different technical aspects of this last spring: Look at my posts for April 30; May 9 and 17; June 3, 9 and 20; July 14. This has been an issue that has increased importance over the last year or two, based on my conversations with you all. Everyone wants to avoid product liability/recalls, and are interested in reduced downtime that can also result. Be sure to take in my presentation on the topic at the PPI Convention in Charlottetown, PEI (http://www.potatoconvention.com/) in June.

3) Reduction in dependence on skilled labor. This one is a bit less universal than the first two- some of you are still committed to the current model of support labor needed in a line. But labor, whether we like it or not, is increasingly expensive and difficult to acquire and retain. Few people want such menial jobs, and those who are willing to accept them tend toward transient in lifestyle- you just can't keep them in one place. We are working on automation to accomplish this, as I mention in my posts of last April 1, 9 and 22.

4) Product quality. Again, this is a bit more limited in applicability. Many products have similar quality specs that have remained unchanged for a long time; for those, the focus must be yield (while maintaining quality). But there are new products and new markets, some of which require nearly zero defect. For some of those, the normal processing line setup may not be sufficient to achieve needed quality. I wrote quite a bit about this last July 3, 19 and 22.

These are the areas I focus on, because I think they are most important to you. Let me know how you see things!

Tim

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The Economy

This time, I really need your help.

What is the REAL effect of the current economy on the potato processing industry? Really!

I have seen the recent news reports:

• French fry stocks up 7% in the US (normal for this month in the year)
• Fresh potato prices remain high
• Simplot and Lamb-Weston renegotiate grower contracts (growers are realistic)
• Lamb-Weston moves toward JV raw potato supply in Idaho (growers are angry)
• Frito-Lay sales are doing well
• McDonald's is building restaurants
• Etc.

To say the overall message in the news is mixed is a bit of an understatement. Are things getting better or worse or staying about the same?

Who knows?

For Key's potato business, we have seen some projects move out in time... but hey, they do that all the time, no? And no word from McCain on that new plant in the NW US they announced a couple of years ago. Maybe no news is bad news?

I have spent some time recently, traveling around to various points on the globe, to get a sense for how the industry is doing. I must say, there are quite a few new plants and new lines being planned, perhaps as much as we have seen since the Atkins scare about the same time as 9-11-01. Not huge lines, mind you, but several small-to medium projects. And many who are not planning new lines are planning equipment upgrades and modernization. So the industry seems to be planning to spend money over the next couple of years. Will they really?

As I have written before, it is times like these when I am quite pleased to be in the processed potato industry. Times are tight, consumers are not spending money in lots of areas. Computers and cars are in the tank. But everyone, it seems, needs to eat- and potato products offer a very nice mix of taste, value and nutrition. Comfort foods, I call them. Sure, people are coming home to eat rather than going to a restaurant, that is a trend to be expected. More customers for McDonald's and Safeway, fewer for TGI Fridays.

But they are eating potato products and always will.

Of course, there is reality of the current economy that will affect the processed potato industry. More people are unemployed right now, providing wonderful opportunity for our stable market to acquire employees with different views and backgrounds, broadening our perspectives. Prices for fuel have more or less come back to planet Earth, making lower cost raw product something of a possibility. And governments are stimulating the economy by providing tax incentives for business investments, cutting the cost of improving yields for an industry with cash.

So we keep working on solutions, and looking to find areas where we can apply solid technology to solve real-world problems. From my perspective, opportunities abound.

Tim

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