Heritage potato varieties will be promoted this year

THE conservation of heritage varieties will be one of the areas promoted in Ireland this year, to mark International Year of the Potato.

Food Minister, Trevor Sargent, said his department maintains the national collection of over 400 varieties in its Potato Centre in Raphoe, Co Donegal.

“A number of local and national shows are going to display heritage varieties during the year and this, hopefully, will encourage the further utilisation of these varieties,” he said.

Mr Sargent said, currently, over 315m tonnes of potatoes are produced worldwide, with China and India now being the two most important countries of production

Whilst consumption of the potato in developing countries is still less than a quarter of that in Europe, all evidence suggests it will increase strongly in the future and will play an increasing role in providing food security for many of the world’s population, he said.