TRADE AND MARKET I NG Chinese processing approaching 88 million tons tional value is also not yet known. We’ll know in a few years’ time whether China will achieve in 20 years the level that has taken Europe 50 years to achieve Apart from that, potato cultivation and consumption will continue to increase for some time to come. Urban areas are growing fast and companies such as KFC and McDonald’s have already created a need. Also, the supermarkets are growing fast in the cities, which will create a new table potato market’, the Chinese entrepreneur explains. Wang wants to increase the cropping frequency on his farm in the coming years in order to maintain his quality level also in the future. Moreover, he wants to switch the focus to the cultivation of seed potatoes, because that market is growing rapidly here. He also wants to collaborate closely with French-fry factories and is thinking about starting his own brand name. He would like to get another variety for the Favorita.’This variety is very sensitive to mechanical damage so we have to lift everything manually, involving a lot of labour, which is increasingly difficult to find. As soon as we can lift a bigger area mechanically, we can extend the already short growing season (May to September). And we Zhang Hay, CEO of the Hongji Company, tells me that his company grows a total of over 2,600 hectares of potatoes. can lower the cost price per kilogram a little bit more’, he thinks. Starch is booming We shouldn’t underestimate the starch market in China either. It’s really big business. The Chinese use it for their well-known noodles and they also process starch into flakes and add starch to a range of products. At the World Potato Congress (WPC) in Beijing, there was a complete potato laboratory with new potato products. The government wants to invest even more in this branch because dried products are storable for many years. The advantage is that, as a business, you don’t depend too much on the influence of the market. A very professional business that has been active in this market since July 2008 is Hongji Agriculture. A great many activities are being carried out in its spacious, well‘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. 26 Potato World 2016 • number 2 Pagina 25
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