HANDE L EN AFZ E T Per plant, the Chinese harvest about 30 to 40 mini tubers. APH supplies over 10 million euros worth of potato mechanisation equipment, among which 27 6-row Cramer planting machines. Ac reage towards 8 mi l l ion hec tares It is quite clear that Xisen is totally fascinated by potatoes. This impression was further reinforced when – after this extensive introduction – he took us to see his own potato museum. This is the crown jewel in his potato palace. In his museum, Xisen displays the history of the potato and presents the visitors with a wide range of details and facts. And he also includes his own company in the demonstration. For example, he has built a model of his entire company to a scale of 1:150. Xisen tells the visitor that the potato was once introduced to China by the Dutch. And today, China is the country with the largest potato acreage in the world. Most of the total of 6 million hectares is grown in small fields around the many towns and villages of the country, which has over 1.3 billion inhabitants. Many of these plots are even smaller than the allotments we know so well in Europe. The increasing demand for potatoes offers Xisen enormous opportunities. The Chinese government has indicated that it wants the potato acreage to increase before the year 2015 to 8 million hectares with a total yield of 270 million tons. In addition to its high nutritional value, the Chinese government praises the efficient water use of the potato as compared to rice. Before this is achieved, a great deal of professionalism will be needed so that a good and constant quality can be supplied to the various production channels. Big buyers such as KFC and McDonalds demand constant quality in the potatoes of their suppliers. Set t ing up a proces s ing indus t r y Xisen is not the only big potato company we visited in China. South of the metropole Beijing is Snowvalley in Zhangjiakou, which is also active in growing potatoes. The name Snowvalley refers to the hilly region where the company has its headquarters. The flowering potato fields in summer look like enormous snow fields. White is the colour of cleanliness and freshness, a quality that Snowvalley likes to emanate for its own potatoes. The water that flows through Snowvalley stands for the increasing amounts of potatoes that the company wants to sell on the Chinese market. In doing this, the company focuses on the entire potato chain. The owners are the previous Chinese employees of the American processing company Simplot. They have carried out a great deal of research in China to find out where the best cultivation areas are. Snowvalley started growing seed and mini tubers both at the same time. They produce approximately 5 million every year. The mini tubers form the basis of the total of 1,200 hectares of potatoes grown annually by Snowvalley, 500 of which are reserved for the cultivation of seed potatoes. Snowvalley also ‘High standards, high technology and high quality make big business from small potatoes’, can be read in big Chinese characters on the store. 22 Potato World 2009 • number 3 Pagina 21
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