News on The Potato Supply Chain from Africa

An acute shortage of potatoes has hit Nyandarua County, a top producer of potatoes in Kenya and in fact, the entire country is suffering from a shortage.

La inocuidad alimentaria se perfila como un desafío internacional para evitar 420.000 muertes y 600 millones de casos de enfermedades al año en el mundo.

Restaurants in Kenya are reeling from an acute shortage of Irish potatoes with the Agriculture ministry putting the supply gap at 1.7 million metric tonnes.

In Nigeria, the Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, attended the official start of the construction of a Potato Tissue Culture Laboratory in the Mangu Local Government Area.

The Algerian Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries Abdelkader Bouazghi said that Algeria would stop the import of seed potatoes in 2021

Recently, a new box storage system installed by Mooij Agro in Algeria at Agrico Algérie was inaugurated in the presence of the Dutch Ambassador in Algeria, Mr. Robert van Embden and the local governor.

The county Nyandarua in Kenya has received a Sh116 million (€1 million; USD 1.16 million) grant from the European Union to boost potato farming.

The permanent secretary in the ministry of Agriculture, Mr Mathew Mtigumwe, and the Dutch Ambassador to Tanzania, Mr Jeroen Verheul, signed the document on behalf of the two governments.

Victoria - a popular local potato variety in Uganda - is extremely susceptible to potato Late Blight disease, but a resistant GM version of this variety has been developed.
With testing almost complete, it is up to the government biosafety regulatory authorities in Uganda.

Based on extensive trials (two years, three separate farms, ten potato varieties) in a joint effort of AHDB, James Hutton Ltd, SASA and Seeds2B Africa (part of the Syngenta Foundation) three GB potato varieties have been recommended for release in Kenya.

Potato farmers in Nyandarua (Kenya) have approved regulations for Irish potatoes production, handling and marketing.

In Rwanda, the Ministry of Agriculture and partners have pledged to establish modern seed potato warehouses and greenhouses to ensure the supply of quality seed potatoes.

Russia has agreed to ease a ban on potato exports from eight farming areas in Egypt, allowing shipments to resume from June 6.

Pepsico's joint venture in Egypt, Chipsy For Food Industries SAE, announced a major agricultural programme to produce all seed potatoes locally.

Russia’s agricultural quarantine authorities flagged two potato shipments imported from Egypt that were found to be contaminated with potato brown rot.

Senegal expects to produce 150,000 tons of potatoes this year. This represents an increase by 32,000 tons compared to last year.

Tanzania has excelled in experimental trials of high yielding and disease resistant potato varieties under a climate smart agriculture programme aimed to improve food security.

Seed Potatoes sent out to Kenya from Great Britain has performed strongly on three Kenyan trial sites.