Solanum, one of the UK's leading suppliers of potatoes, impressed visitors at the 10th Potato Day in Ryton, Coventry with a wide range of exhibits specially designed to educate attendees on the various areas of the supply chain.

The first point of call was a one tonne box part filled with potatoes as they would arrive at the packaging site, continuing along the process with a grading table through to a rack of finished retail product.

Individual tubers of more than 100 varieties of seed potatoes were also available to purchase in the great marquee through the gardening advice desk along with rare potato micro plants to cultivate at home.

Solanum provided chitted seed potatoes and potted tubs of potato plants.

At the crop clinic, Dr Simon Bowen, group agronomy manager for Solanum handed out advice on the best places to grow potatoes and answered questions about diseases, while other activities organised on the stand included 'Mastermind Challenge' corner competitions with two organic hampers as prizes.

John Pearson, managing director at Solanum, concluded: 'We were delighted to be part of this interactive and educational event that allowed the general public and potato enthusiasts the opportunity to get advice from industry experts, buy a number of different seeds and help rejuvinate unusual and interesting varieties.' More than 1,850 visitors attended the two day event, hosted by the HDRA and sponsored by Waitrose.

Topics