BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

05/06/2008

Belarus still occupies the first place in the world as the producer of potato per capita

Belarus retains the first place in the world as the producer of potato per capita. The annual gross harvest of potato exceeds 8 mln. tons in the Republic; i.e., 700-900 kg/year is allocated per each adult inhabitant. This information has been released today by Victor Radivinovskiy, the Chief of the Public Information Department of UN House in the Republic of Belarus. He spoke at the conference "Belarusian potato. Food safety of the country" in Minsk. The conference is conducted under support of UN House in Belarus, the Ministry of Agricultural Production, the scientific-practical centers of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, which work in the sphere of potato, fruit and vegetable production and mechanization of the agriculture.

FAO experts believe that potato may help decreasing the prices for food products. The global prices for most agricultural products have reached the high record level. On this background potato attracts the increased attention as an alternative food crop.

Potato prices are set on the basis of the production costs directly in the production region; they depend less on the spontaneous price runups on the international markets. That's why the prices for the other food products may decrease if the consumption of potato in the ration of the population increases, Mr. Radivinovskiy specified. In particular, the processing enterprises bake bread with potato flour or middling in order to decrease the imports of the expensive wheat.

Almost 90% of potato are produced in the small farms and private households in Belarus. The program of potato production is developed in the country; it provisions the gross harvest to increase at least on 1.5 mln. tons in all categories of farms by 2010. There is a plan to increase the yield twofold. The production cost of potato is expected to decrease 30-40%. The volumes of potato processing will be increased up to 330,000 tons.

The international year of potato, announced by United Nations Organization in 2008, will contribute to the wider dissemination of this crop cultivation. Potato ideally fit to the regions with the limited agricultural resources and the excessive labor resources, which are typical for most developing countries.

According to the experts' evaluations, during next three decades the volume of the production of marketable and agricultural potato will be increased 60% in the world, "BELTA" informs.

Source:

http://www.lol.org.ua/eng/showart.php?id=59587

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