Medius Powers Variety Selection at Potato Expo 2025: From French Fries to Potato Chips
This week, I’m on the ground at Potato Expo 2025, and I couldn’t be more excited about what’s happening in variety selection for the processing potato industry.
Supporting Tomorrow’s French Fries
Yesterday, we had the privilege of working alongside Potatoes USA and the National Fry Processor Trials (NFPT) Steering Committee as they evaluated russet varieties for the next generation of french fries.
If you’re not familiar with how processing potato development works, it’s a truly collaborative effort. Potato breeders, processors, state potato commissions, and Potatoes USA all come together to identify which emerging varieties have what it takes to succeed—whether that’s yield, disease resistance, storage quality, or fry color and texture. It’s a process that spans years, crosses state lines, and involves mountains of trial data.
That’s where Medius comes in.
Our .Re platform has long provided stakeholders with the ability to access trial data, run comparisons, and accelerate decision-making. But this year, we debuted something new: the Variety Selection Module.
This interactive tool is designed specifically for live selection meetings. While participants are still encouraged to do their own research ahead of time using the .Re platform, the Variety Selection Module enhances data lookup during the meeting itself—delivering relevant information instantly and guiding the group through the selection process step by step, in real time.
Less time searching. More time discussing. Informed decisions, made together.
It was incredible to watch the NFPT Steering Committee move through their evaluations with confidence, focused on the conversation rather than the data wrangling.
Chip Varieties Take the Stage on Friday
But french fries aren’t the only focus this week.
On Friday, the chip sector will be reviewing the results of their variety selection meeting that took place back in December. During that meeting, Medius was used to analyze a wide range of chip varieties—helping identify the most promising candidates to become tomorrow’s potato chips.
We’re looking forward to seeing how those selections are received and continuing to support the chip industry’s variety development efforts.
Why This Work Matters
Variety development is the foundation of a resilient, productive potato industry. The decisions made in these meetings ripple outward for years—affecting growers, processors, and ultimately consumers. By making the selection process faster, more accurate, and more collaborative, we’re proud to play a small part in shaping the future of American agriculture.
If you’re at Potato Expo this week, come find me—I’d love to connect.
And if you’re curious about how Medius can support your research or variety trials, visit us at medius.re to learn more.
Stop sifting through spreadsheets. Put your data to work for you.
Note: The featured image shows the Variety Selection Module interface for demonstration purposes only. The variety and data shown are not real.