Positive outlook for potatoes

The potato industry in China will see great improvements in the near future but will need to work harder on technology, according to insiders.

The Chinese government has attached more and more importance to potatoes in recent years, said Zhou Xiangyang, general manager of Beijing Hengde Jiahui Equity Investment Co.

He said many investors are focusing on the industry and his company will set up a center in Yanqing for big potato deals during the 2015 World Potato Congress, which opens today in the northern suburban county of Beijing.

China is now one of the world's largest potato producers and has a planting area of more than 5.3 million hectares.

However, Zhou said, the potato yield per unit in China is not high compared with many other countries and it is necessary to improve technologies.

Statistics show the average potato yield in China was about 15.4 tons per hectare in 2013, less than half of that in some European countries.

Ma Wenfeng, an analyst at Beijing Orient Agribusiness Consultant Co, said that promoting seed and planting technologies is very important in making potatoes the fourth staple food in China after rice, wheat and corn, according to a report by financial analysis website aastocks.com.

Zhou is optimistic that China's potato industry will improve significantly in the near future as he found many potato companies are making great efforts to buy advanced technology and equipment.

Yanqing in Beijing boasts rich potato-related research and development resources as it is home to the potato technology demonstration center under the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Beijing Xisen Sanhe Potato Co, China's largest seed tuber company.

Infrastructure projects by the International Potato Center for Asia-Pacific are under construction in the county and once completed the center hopes to be a globally leading root and tuber research institution.

Insiders said scientific research achievements in Yanqing could help nearby regions promote the potato industry in the future.

This year, Yanqing county will cooperate with neighboring city Zhangjiakou in Hebei province.

Yanqing plans to develop seed tubers and plant them in Zhangjiakou as the city has extensive farmlands, officials in the region said.

Making potatoes a staple food is important for China as the country's grain demand continues to increase but it is harder and harder to raise yields of the current three staple crops due to limitations on arable land and water resources, insiders said at a seminar in Beijing earlier this year.

A research group at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences has been working on making potatoes a staple food suitable for Chinese dining habits since 2013.

Some supermarkets in Beijing began to sell steamed potato buns developed by the group in June.

It is expected that more than half of the potatoes in China will be consumed as a staple food in 2020.

songmengxing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 07/28/2015 page7)