Peru: Native Potatoes in the Limelight

Peru has been bestowed with more than three thousand varieties of native potatoes, which represents a comparative advantage that the country should be developing. Since native potato varieties require particular climatic and agro-ecological conditions, most of them could not be grown outside the Peruvian Andes, making these potatoes unique to Peru. “It is not possible to compete internationally with the white potato,” pointed out André Deavux, Coordinator of the regional project Papa Andina, of the International Potato Center; hence, efforts to promote native potatoes have started through the project Innovation and Competitiveness for the Peruvian Potato (INCOPA in Spanish). Under INCOPA, Papa Andina has been helping to link the native potato producers with other parts of the produce chain to ensure higher quality in native potatoes, with added value and oriented to specific markets.

To read more: http://www.cipotato.org/pressroom/press_releases_detail.asp?cod=31.