TRADE AND MARKET I NG Chinese processing approaching 88 million tons The Chinese government wants a total of 40 percent of Chinese potato production to be sold to the processing industry by 2025. As the entire potato harvest is estimated to be 220 million tons, this means that a total of 88 million tons of potatoes will be processed annually. This is an enormous amount of French fries, starch and flakes. A tour of a few Chinese potato processing manufacturers shows that this country is already preparing for this impressive processing scenario. I n the Hebei province, the Aviko-Snow Valley food company, a joint venture between the Chinese Snow Valley company and the Dutch processor Aviko, has invested 85 million euros in a French-fry factory in which the company will produce 100,000 tons of chips and 10,000 tons of flakes in the coming years. In addition, Snow Valley has built a storage unit for 130,000 tons of potatoes. To get the crops organised, the company has started its own seed potato production. Snow Valley produces 50 million mini tubers annually to provide seed for its own cultivation processes and that of thirty affiliated growers. The company produces its mini tubers in greenhouses and is investing a great deal of money in that. For example, it is building state-ofthe-art green houses with optimal climate control in order to improve the production even more. There were further investments in the production capacity this year to increase processing towards 50,000 tons of French fries and 8,000 tons of potato flakes. The turnover was 68 million euros in total, bringing the selling price of chips to around 1 euro per kilogram. To finance the Snow Valley development further, owner Don Wang is considering listing his company on the stock exchange. Whether this is still a good idea after recent developments on the Chinese stock market is yet to be seen. At any rate, professional potato man Wang notes that the potato industry in China is growing fast. With this growth, his business has also grown considerably. He started in 2007 with 600 hectares. He currently has 10,000 hectares which he can use for growing potatoes. ‘Because the government is The Chinese entrepreneur Don Wang wants to become an active breeder himself as the Chinese government is really keen on Chinese varieties. Potato World 2016 • number 2 21 Pagina 20
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