Innovation Ignites at the 2025 British Potato Event

The British Potato event has long been a beacon of innovation and collaboration within our industry. And this year's event was no exception – bringing together growers, agronomists, researchers and the supply chain to share knowledge, drive progress, and celebrate success.

For us at BASF, this event is more than just a platform for showcasing our latest innovations. It's an opportunity to connect and gain a deeper understanding of the sector's challenges and opportunities. And that's why we return year after year - to stay ahead of the curve and ensure our solutions meet the evolving needs of potato growers.

This year was particularly notable, given our extensive pipeline of innovations. While we have a new insecticide and herbicide on the way (pending approvals), our late blight product, Privest, and alternaria fungicide, Belanty, are already proving their value in the marketplace and on farm.

The British Potato event is a unique space where knowledge-sharing is key. Our agronomic experts were on hand to discuss the latest insights behind our products.

It was great to hear from growers and agronomists who, despite the low blight pressure this year, have extracted maximum value from Privest, harnessing its unique modes of action for resistance management, deploying it as a 'firebreak' within programmes.

Of course, no discussion of potato production would be complete without mentioning the challenges ahead. Having used up last year's stocks of mancozeb, 2026 could be the year we fully realise the significant role it played in controlling alternaria.

Fortunately, Belanty arrived on the scene this year. Based on Revysol, it offers protective and curative activity against alternaria, providing comparable control to industry benchmarks but with one important difference. In comparison with SDHI chemistry, it offers increased flexibility under FRAC guidelines.

The awards ceremony is always a highlight of the event - a celebration of innovation and achievement that brings together the best of the industry. We were honoured to be recognised for our work in sustainability.

Our integrated pest management (IPM) platform, launched in 2023, explores four crops - potatoes, sugar beet, peas, and carrots - under three IPM regimes: standard, mid-level, and high-level. With nearly 650m² of crop in each condition, it's one of the largest IPM platforms ever established in the UK, attracting widespread engagement from stakeholders including Defra, regulators, and industry leaders, as well as growers, agronomists and supply chain partners.

The value of the British Potato event is hard to measure, but it's undoubtedly invaluable. It's only through collaboration that we'll negotiate the challenges ahead and forge a sustainable future for potato production.