President launches the International Year of the Potato in Peru

Potato exhibition in the dinner room of Goverment Palace.

On Thursday 22 November, the President of Peru, Alan García Pérez, officially launched the International Year of the Potato in the country, highlighting the contribution that the potato makes to the world.

Ministers of State, representatives of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization and the International Potato Center (CIP), diplomats and delegations of High Andean producers of potato attended the ceremony. The Peruvian leader emphasized the nutritional qualities of the potato and promised greater public education on the benefits of this great food.

García Pérez noted the low annual consumption of potato in Peru is 88 kg per person per year, much lower than countries such as France and Belgium. He suggested a consumption target of up to 100 annual kg per year.

The ceremony included the viewing of part of an exhibition entitled “The Progress of the Potato” which CIP is preparing in collaboration with government ministries. The exhibition looks at the domestication of the potato, its importance in pre-Columbian cultures, its discovery and transport to Europe, its wider dissemination and the legacy of the original breeders. From February 2008 the exhibition will be shown in eleven countries around Europe and Scandinavia.

Dr Charles Crissman, Deputy Director-General of Research, who represented CIP in the ceremony, pointed out later that the proclamation of 2008 as International Year of the Potato by the United Nations allowed the revaluation of the importance of this Andean product in the generation of incomes, poverty alleviation and food security worldwide.

“We are very happy to share this moment with everybody present here, and particularly with the farmers, who represent the hundreds of thousands of people who cultivate potato in Peru,” he said. “They continue the tradition of cultivating the incredible diversity of the potato, in order to preserve it, and sharing their valuable knowledge on this crop.”

CIP representatives in Government Palace ceremony. From left to right: Willy Roca, André Devaux, Charles Crissman and Miguel Ordinola.

“During this year and in the next, CIP will work with the Government of Peru, FAO and other organizations to emphasize not only the value of this crop, but also the importance of the guardians of its biodiversity in the Andean mountains. CIP is committed to using this year to promote this crop as a way of economic growth through the national and international markets”, he added.