China wants to secure its food supply with potatoes TRADE AND MARKETING ‘We prefer to be the first to go and develop activities in countries that really want our varieties’, Herman Verveld of HZPC explains. can be tested annually, or provincial registration. This registration takes roughly two years, assuming that nothing goes wrong in the trial fields. For trialling our own varieties in the various growing areas in China, it’s important to have a good partner there. In addition, you need a partner who targets the market.’ A good certification system is essential Looking at the future, Verveld makes a plea for a good seed certification system. ‘We need to get certification operational at national level as soon as possible. It helps the entire potato chain to have good quality seed, which is guaranteed. If you’re active in a market as a company, you’ll start working on that. And you can’t do it from the Netherlands. But together with local partners who are supported by training – from the Netherlands, for example – we can make substantial progress. At the same time, we make sure that support from Europe brings knowledge to the chain. The fact is that we want to start out with the cultivation of seed and the production of mini tubers in a professional way. Our aim is to use our knowledge and expertise as much as possible to move forward, whereby we’ll convert to the local ways of working. This is important, because scale enlargement and mechanisation are ongoing, which increases the risks of failure. If you fail to provide healthy seed and a 30-hectare crop is lost, you have enormous costs. This also applies to the production of mini tubers. In the Chinese system, the seed potato growers grow the mini tubers twice, after which they’re sold as user seed. Missing out once due to a diseased tuber isn’t too bad, but you must keep things like variety hybridisation well under control, because otherwise our customers will run into problems. If we can develop the cultivation of consumption potatoes professionally, the average yield of 19 tons per hectare can quickly increase to 30 to 50 tons per hectare, which will make the potato an important source of food for the Chinese’, explains Verveld. China is very much in the picture, which is why the World Potato Congress will be held in this Asiatic country this year. In addition to the international congress, there will also be field trips, for example to Snow Valley. Big names at WPC It goes without saying that both Aviko and HZPC will be present at the 9th World Potato Congress. It will take place in the Chinese capital of Beijing from 28 to 30 July. It’s not for nothing that the WPC organisation has chosen the super power China to bring together all the potato entrepreneurs from the whole world. China is very much in the picture, because companies are hoping to do good business here in the coming years. In addition to Aviko and HZPC, WPC therefore expects to welcome all prominent world players in the potato sector in Beijing. This is why the organisation has also put together an interesting programme of lectures. Big names from trade, industry and research will contribute to the programme here. The full programme with speakers and additional field trips can be found on the www.potatocongress.org website, where you can also register for the World Potato Congress. Potato World magazine will also be there and will report on this major event in China in its summer editions. ● Jaap Delleman Potato World 2015 • number 2 9 Pagina 8
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