U2 Food Studies SAC 1 Task 1: Potato Industry and Business Strategies

This report examines the agricultural practices and business strategies of Eman, a potato farmer in New South Wales, Australia. It details the potato production process, from planting in winter to harvesting in spring and summer, followed by transportation to a manufacturing company for crisp production. The report highlights the impact of climate change on potato yields, noting rising temperatures and their effect on crop health. It also discusses the challenges Eman faces due to changing consumer preferences and the declining sales of potato crisps. To address these issues, Eman has developed a website and social media presence to promote the benefits of potatoes and diversify his market reach by connecting with other manufacturing companies. The report references relevant sources to support its analysis of the potato industry and Eman's business adaptations.

Choose your own adventure
Name of the Student

• Eman works in an agricultural
industry and he is a potato
farmer. His farm situated in
the Coastal Districts of New
South Wales. He plants the
potato in the winter which is
generally three months –
June, July, and August
(Dpi.nsw.gov.au 2010).

• He harvests the potatoes in
Spring and summer from October
to January (Dpi.nsw.gov.au 2010).
After the harvest, the potatoes
were transported to The Smith's
Snackfood Company
(Smiths.com.au 2019). In this
manufacturing company, the
potatoes are turned in to crisps.

• The potatoes are goes through the
process of 1) Destoning and peeling,
2) Slicing, 3) Frying and salting, and
4)Packaging to turn in to crisps
(Genc, Seda and Hepbasli 2015).
After that the products (Crisp) are
distributed in the local store, local
super market, and big chain
supermarket in New South Wales,
all over Australia and United
Kingdom.

• In the last decade, climate change
has an effect on the production of
the potatoes in Eman’s farm.
Australia's average temperature has
already risen over the past century
over 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit
(Pachauri et al. 2014). Warmer
nights affect paddocks and growing
crops ; if temperatures don't drop,
plants can not recover.

• Recently, the sell of Eman’s potatoes
has taken a hit due to lower sell of crisp
as people becoming more health
conscious. Hence, Eman has created a
website to showcase the benefits and
healthy recipes of potatoes. He has also
created a twitter handle and Facebook
page of his page to connect other
manufacturing companies so that he
can diversify his sell of potatoes and
does not depend on one manufacturing
company.

References:
• Dpi.nsw.gov.au. 2010. "The Potato Industry In New South Wales". Dpi.Nsw.Gov.Au.
http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/315381/The-potato-industry-in-New-South-W
ales.pdf
.
• Genc, Seda, and Arif Hepbasli. "Performance assessment of a potato crisp frying process." Drying
Technology 33, no. 7 (2015): 865-875.
• Pachauri, Rajendra K., Myles R. Allen, Vicente R. Barros, John Broome, Wolfgang Cramer, Renate Christ,
John A. Church et al. Climate change 2014: synthesis report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III
to the fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Ipcc, 2014.
• Smiths.com.au. 2019. "Smiths". Smiths.Com.Au. https://www.smiths.com.au/.