Backgrounder – 10th World Potato Congress

Following a rigorous process, Peru was selected to host the 10th World Potato Congress and the 28th Congress of the Latin American Potato Association, which will take place simultaneously in the city of Cusco from May 27 to 31. This event is an opportunity for Peru to make the potato a flagship product commercially to promote its native potatoes using the linked concepts of biodiversity, food security and business.

This initiative was promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation (MINAGRI), the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism (MINCETUR), the National Institute of Agrarian Innovation (INIA), the International Potato Center (CIP), National Agrarian University in La Molina (UNALM), and the FAO Country Office in Peru. The Regional Government of Cusco and Provincial Municipality of Cusco also gave ample support to Peru’s candidature.

The World Potato Congress takes place every three years and is the sector’s most important scientific event worldwide. The last edition was held in 2015 in China, where it was announced that Peru would be the venue for the following Congress.

Peru is the first Latin American country to host the World Potato Congress. It is a unique opportunity for Peruvian scientists to familiarize themselves with the latest scientific advances regarding this crop, as well as a showcase for the country’s potential and competitive advantages.

For participants from other regions, the celebration of the World Potato Congress in Peru brings many advantages, since this region has crucial characteristics, such as: i) The significance of potato for Peru, with a process that has made it Latin America’s most dynamic producer; ii) The presence of public and private partnerships relating to potato; iii) The proven capacity of Cusco to house this type of event, in terms of services, hotels, and tourism options; and iv) The importance of Peru’s potato biodiversity and its valorization, which demonstrate how a living concept can be used and valued by the different stakeholders in different markets.

The topics to be addressed in this edition of the World Potato Congress deal with the following lines of work: i) Climate Change and Potato Agrifood Systems; ii) Potato Consumption and Market Trends; iii) Varietal Development and Biotechnology; iv) Potato Pests and Diseases; v) Potato Crop Management; vi) Post-harvest and Processing Technology; and, vii) Potato Biodiversity and its relation to nutrition and health. There will also be technical round-table discussions on the Global Challenge of Late Blight, Challenges of in Situ Conservation, and the Value Chain for Smallholder Farmers and Culinary Innovations.

The 10th World Potato Congress will be a showcase for displaying and promoting the experience of sustainable use of potato biodiversity (with an emphasis on native varieties); and for applying market differentiation criteria relating to nutrition, health, and food security as a basis for consolidating income-generating options to improve the living standards of small-scale producers by facilitating access to domestic and international markets.

It is important to note that the Peruvian experience has importance for the world. Potato is not merely something that is eaten in Peru: it is a food that was the basis of the development of Andean civilizations, and it has great cultural significance, as part of the country’s traditional lifestyle. The world can learn from what is being done with potato in Peru today, and solutions to many of the world’s problems with potato crops can be found in the work being done in the Andean highlands.

Biodiversity, Food Security, and Business

It is important to develop a business concept that can convey the theme of biodiversity to the rest of the world. The World Potato Congress is an opportunity to gather and pool business experiences with products such as the native potato chips (snack)s that Peru exports to France, Belgium, Germany, and England, or the precooked and frozen yellow potatoes that are exported to Japan, the United States, and Spain.

Peru has an opportunity to show the world, in a clearly defined, scientific way, the value of biodiversity and how different potato varieties can be associated with different processes. It is also important to highlight the work being done in native potato conservation, a process that has been carried out in the Andean region for thousands of years by smallholder producers (custodian farmers). We must show that biodiversity is being conserved, used, and has great potential.

The contribution potato varieties have made to food and nutrition security should be shared with the public. Many of these native varieties have high contents of

micronutrients that can improve nutrition and health. This congress provides an excellent opportunity to share this information and capture the interest of the world in these possibilities.

We also need to showcase the businesses with equitable approaches that are growing and finding partners, and the potential for investing in these value chains; how our yellow and native potato varieties can reach the world; and the feasibility for smallholder farmers to make the crucially necessary contacts to obtain a steady income and improve their living conditions.

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