HONG KONG SAR - Media OutReach - 25 October 2021 - During a special award ceremony on Wednesday September 1st, a professional jury awarded the PotatoEurope Gold Innovation Award to the South Korean company Microtubers of E Green Global (EGG). Crop.zone's Nucrop clinched the Silver Award, while HZPC's Smart Bigbag received the Bronze. The PotatoEurope Innovation Awards are made to the PotatoEurope 2021-exhibiting company deemed to have met the three key criteria best –– innovativeness, potential impact in the potato market and applicability in the potato sector.

EGG's technology produces virus-free and vigorous Microtuber seed potatoes through mass production in bio-secured plant factories which are continually harvested throughout the year. These lab-grown potato seeds are capable of being machine-planted directly in open field. "This special innovation means a lot in different domains, from health and speed to broad applicability. We see the EGG Microtubers as a leap forward in the towards innovation of varieties and believe that the innovation will soon be widely applicable. We expect that the industry will recognize EGG Microtubers as a fundamental but also applicable breakthrough," said jury member Dirk Duijzer, figurehead of the Dutch Top Sector Agri & Food, when awarding the prize.

EGG is the first company that has managed to successfully manufacture Microtubers on a commercial scale.  They have managed to develop a disruptive technology that overcomes the limitations of the current seed potato supply system and are currently the only company to effectively enable "Lab to Farm" seed potatoes on a global scale. EGG's method allows for the production of virus-free high quality seed potatoes in a shorter span of time, cutting the time required of five to six years, to one or two years, giving farmers and customers faster and cheaper crops at a higher quantity and quality.

Clearly, the PotatoEurope Innovation Awards recognises "[a]amazingly interesting innovations, practically all meaningful and completely different in focus: speed of reproduction, strengthening freshness and quality of the final product, less use of harmful substances, better tracking and tracing, less disease susceptibility, optimization of the producer's income and so on", as quoted from Duijzer. "Many specialists are involved in these innovations: electronics, mechanical technology, digital technology, marketing, DNA- technology and logistics, all highly specialized. This broad range of different directions and specializations shows that entrepreneurs in the potato chain have to work on the cutting edge to stay competitive."