Peru celebrated the National Day of the Potato

Since 2005, this national festival took place to promote the consumption of potatoes in the country.

Peru is the birthplace of the potato. The number of varieties of natives is estimated at 3,000 while only 60 of them were recorded. MINAGRI, the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation (MINAGRI) wants to develop recording native potatoes to not miss this national genetic resource and protect them from future acts of "biopiracy."

The Ministry indicates that consumption of potatoes has increased from 76 kg per person in 2005 to 85 kg in 2013. Objective is to reach 90 kg per capita in 2020.

Peru has 730,000 small producers of potatoes, divided into 19 regions, often in mountainous areas, the harvest this year will reach 4.7 million tons. Potatoes produced are mainly consumed in the country (92%) and only 8% are exported.

source : peru this week com, ci potato org