TRADE AND MARKET I NG Processing industry should open up the potato sector of Argentina With the election of Mauricio Macri as the new President of Argentina, a fresh wind is blowing over the pampas. He has promised his people a more liberal approach and wants to get rid of the high export and import levies. In his view, they seriously hinder the growth and development of the agricultural sector. In combination with recent Brazilian research into the dumping of European French fries in that neighbouring country, this offers opportunities for the increasing professionalism of the Argentinian potato sector. The Dutch-Argentinian GITAHpapa project has produced a lot of knowledge in the past three years. As a result, growers can now dependably respond to the demand for better industrial potatoes. chains such as McDonald’s, Burger King and KFC. These buyers of potatoes are very particular as far as their French fries are concerned. This means that the cultivation of potatoes in Argentina had to be modernised enormously in order to provide the processing industry with a high quality of raw material. Growers find it difficult, however, to gear to this new situation. To improve the cultivation, the GITAHpapa (Grupo de Intercambio Technológico ArgentinoHolandés) project was started in 2012 with a financial budget of 2 million euros, half of which is from subsidies. ‘The underlying objective of the project is to promote the Dutch suppliers via modernisation of the Argentinian sector, with the help of the Dutch government through the 2g@there programme. Important activities within this project are to carry out a market analysis, to set up demonstration projects, and to exchange knowledge and participate in exhibitions and congresses. As the Argentinian climate is very suitable and large areas of the country have very good soil for the cultivation of potatoes, the basis for success is all there. At the start of the GITAHpapa project it became apparent that, in fact, every element of the Argentinian growing process needed improvement. The aim of the project is to improve every single aspect of the cultivation process, together with the entire Argentinian potato sector, in order to be able to start using modern knowledge and technology’, Marcos Carosella, Director of the APH Group Latin America, explains. ‘It already starts with planting. Most Argentinian growers cut the seed by hand. This creates the extra risk of spreading disease and leads to many empty spaces in the ridge, as a result of which both yield and quality are under pressure already at the start of the growing season. Results from local tests show that planting with seed that hasn’t been cut yields up to 50 percent more stems compared to seed that has been cut. What attracted attention when measuring the yield was that more tubers in the marketable sizes were harvested, which improved the financial results even more’, Carosella concluded from the results of the various trials that have been carried out in the past three years in the various growing areas in this South-American country. Professional seed potato growing One of the growers who has changed over to planting uncut seed for the cultivation of seed potatoes is Walter Hernández of El Parque Papas in the SEBA area. His farm manager, Juan Magnoni, tells us that they have been growing potatoes for the last sixty years. where the Spunta variety is by far the biggest. The table potatoes are predominantly sold as unpackaged potatoes via the local supermarkets on the street corners. Large supermarkets are increasing their market share, but it is the unpackaged potatoes on the shelves that catch the eye here as well. Argentinians consume approximately 40 kg of potatoes per head of the population annually. High demands for chips Due to the growth of the middle classes in Argentina and Brazil, the demand for processed potato products is increasing rapidly through the rise of fast-food The Argentinian consumer eats approximately 40 kg of potatoes per head of the population annually. Potato World 2016 • number 4 15 Pagina 14

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