Did you know the bulk of potatoes grown in New Zealand end up as French fries? Did you know that Potatoes New Zealand ceo Chris Claridge is a bass guitarist?
For members who missed Claridge's talk, we've included a recap.
Chris Claridge had the honour of becoming the club's first "zoom-in" speaker to a formal meeting.
Covid-19 has disrupted a lot of travel plans, which meant Claridge was no longer able to travel to Invercargill.
However, "zooming" him into the formal meeting worked a treat, and has widened up opportunities to get a range of speakers to our meetings online.
He has an extensive business career and has been with Potatoes New Zealand as its chief executive since November 2015.
He is running an organisation that represents growers, processors, exporters and seed merchants.
The New Zealand industry is made up of more than 160 growers, who produce about 525,000MT of potatoes from more than 10,500hectares of arable farmland.
It's worth more than $140m at farm gate and approaching $814m across the value chain, making it the country's largest vegetable crop.
To get an overview of the industry read about how the 2021 forum went by clicking on this link https://potatoesnz.co.nz/uncategorized/2021-nz-potato-industry-forum-greatly-received/
To find out more about the industry look at the downloaded files from Potatoes New Zealand.
For something fun listen to Claridge respond to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern about how many potatoes are consumed at Christmas time.