Chinese processing approaching 88 million tons TRADE AND MARKET I NG Minituber production is the base op potatogrowing in China. kept industrial area. CEO Zhang Hay tells me that his company grows a total of over 2,600 hectares of potatoes. As with many big companies, Hongji also cultivates his own seed potatoes, for which the business has its own rapidmultiplication station. Our visit is limited to the meeting room from where you can take a quick look at the various departments via a modern camera system. At walking distance from the laboratory, 200 hectares of greenhouses are set up for the cultivation of mini tubers. This year, the company also set up a greenhouse with a hydroponics system, where the plants are ‘milked’ during the growing season. This encourages the production of fifty to a hundred tubers per plant. ‘The advantage is that all tubers have the same weight and they all have the same physiological age’, Zhang emphasises. Zhang also has a storage unit for the seed. In addition to the crop for his own use, Hongji also sells seed potatoes to growers in other growing areas such as Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Shan’xi, Ningxia and Gansu. The total seed potato production amounts to approx. 50,000 tons a year. He uses his own seed potatoes for the production of flakes. The business produces 10,000 tons of flakes annually. Because the factory has space for another production line, production can be quickly doubled. Near the factory and at a fair distance from the seed potato storage unit, is a 90,000 ton storehouse equipped to provide the factory with basic material from September to June. Utilise export opportunities Besides the local sales, the company is also active in the export of flakes and other potato products. According to Zhang, growth in export offers a steady basis for his company. In order to continue providing the local and export markets with the proper potatoes and products, Zhang is keenly searching for new varieties. ‘We’d very much like to collaborate with other businesses, but have started our own breeding programme together with various Chinese universities and institutes. With new varieties and improved cultivation techniques, we can structurally raise the present production of over 20 tons per hectare towards the European level of nearly 70 tons per hectare’, is Zhang’s belief. In the large trial field with seventy new varieties, cultivation expert Liu Wanguang is showing a few new Chinese varieties in which he has a lot of confidence. He has high hopes not only for the Jizhang Shu8 for the table potato market, but also for the Zhongshu 21. This is a variety in the Shepody segment with a stable dry matter content of 21 percent and a yield of more than 70 tons per hectare. With 28 percent of dry matter, the Dongnong 310 variety is a promising number for the starch industry, he shows. ● Jaap Delleman Liu Wanguang of Hongji has great faith in varieties such as the Zhongshu 21. Potato World 2016 • number 2 27 Pagina 26
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