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December 15, 2008
Europatat, the European Union of the potato trade, has
made an internal evaluation of the activities of the UN International year of
the potato 2008.
The overview of the activities in Europe shows that in most countries which are
represented in Europatat a number of actions in the framework of the IYP2008
have been taken. Most of them included promotion of the potato as a modern and
healthy staple food towards specific target groups. Some countries (Belgium,
Ireland, United Kingdom) have focused on the school children with actions to
help the children to grow and harvest their own potatoes and potato oriented
lesson packages, others involved the consumers in their campaigns to illustrate
the culinary richness of the potato and its history.
Competitions, websites, brochures, exhibitions ... all attracted the
modern consumer to the traditional potato.
Also the history of the potato, conquering the world in 5 centuries from its
birthplace of the South American Andes mountains has been illustrated in
numerous media coverage and the travelling exposition throughout Europe : 'the
Odyssey of the Potato' from the Peruvian authorities in collaboration with CIP
in Lima.
A pick out of the most original actions illustrate the broad spectrum of
activities in the framework of the International year of the potato in Europe :
- Switzerland : an 'IYP2008 post stamp' has been launched and 50
million of coffee cream cups with a potato illustration have been
distributed .... ;
- Netherlands : a potato quest with the winner receiving a 'golden
potato' ;
- Belgium : a potato packer launched a new successful cookery book
with a famous (Swedish) TV cook with as a clear title 'the potato'. A
number of recipes has from the book were prepared for the Flemish
government and the press at the start of the political year ;
- Ireland : 40.000 car stickers with the message : ‘potatoes,
Ireland’s favourite vegetable’ are cheering up the Irish roads ;
- United Kingdom : an information vehicle crossed the country to
inform children on the origin of the potato
- Hungary : fine china decorated with a potato flower has been
produced by a porcelain producer.
During its annual congress in Bratislava (2007) and Bern (2008) Europatat
focused on the International Year of the Potato and invited its members to work
out actions on national level.
Via a regular updated action sheet lots of ideas and actions were shared amongst
the national potato trade associations.
Potatoes in the developing world
However the decision by the United Nations general assembly to proclaim 2008 as
the International Year of the Potato has mainly been driven by the exceptional
nourishing features of the potato to be used as a tool against hunger and
poverty in the developing countries.
The FAO declared that "the world wide extreme high prices of the cereals
affected most of all the poor countries and its population and asked for action
to be taken in order to achieve the Millennium Development goals of the UN. They
aim to reduce poverty and hunger in the world by 50 % in 2015.
Fast growing new industrialised countries as India and China have announced an
important growth of the potato culture to feed their population.
Poor sub Sahara and South American countries however seem to be forgotten in
this exercise.
Europatat has assisted to the international conference 'Potato against poverty'
in Cusco Peru and informed its members about the different possibilities to take
action to promote the culture of potatoes in developing countries.
The authorities of various European countries provided direct or indirect
financial support for potato system projects in Africa, Asia or South America.
Some of these projects cover several years.
Also private companies active in the potato chain have taken up their
responsibility and made money available to support or work out their own
development actions all over the world.
The European Union of the Potato Trade has proposed the European Commission to
focus development projects on the potato system investments in developing
countries.
Europatat regrets that up to now neither the Commission nor the directorate
general AGRI or Development have shown a lot of interest to answer the call of
the FAO to diversify the staple food in developing countries to potatoes.
As the director of CIP (Centro Internacional de la Papa) Dr. P. Anderson stated
: "the potato is a primary source of energy for many of the world’s poor. Per
unit area, potatoes produce more food more quickly, on less land, than any other
major crop".
Recently the EU has created a fund containing 1 billion Euro to support the
farmers in Africa and Asia.
Europatat has invited the European Commission and the EU member states to make
use of this fund by focusing also on the possibilities of the potato culture in
the developing world and the availability of healthy seed potatoes in the first
place.
Europatat hopes that the European Commission will make use of the project to
extend the UN international year of the potato 2008 making use of the facilities
created by this project.
The 2008 UN international year of the potato the first step into a process which
is destined to continue far beyond 31 December 2008, as well on European as on
worldwide level.
Information : Europatat, Romain Cools, secretary general. Tel. +32 9
339.12.52, Mobile : +32 475 32.87.57 and mail : romain@fvphouse.be – website :
www.europatat.eu
Annex : (non limitative)
overview
of actions taken in a number of European countries, represented in Europatat.
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