While the potato hasn’t changed much, the industry that produces it has.
Lukie Pieterse is known around the world as a potato consultant. The resident of O’Leary, P.E.I., provided an update on the international industry to Saskatchewan seed potato growers gathered in Saskatoon Nov. 29.
Producers heard about the British Potato Council’s marketing strategies to combat modern anti-starch and anti-potato folklore, as well as the wave of food safety requirements that are flooding global agriculture.
Pieterse also provided background on new seed technology for the mini tuber and explained the effect it might have on seed markets in North America.
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“Potato consumption is not headed in the right direction and the British Potato Council has begun a campaign to change consumers’ use,” he said.
The council’s research agrees with American studies that show younger consumers without families eat 46 percent of their meals without potatoes. At the other end of the dietary spectrum, only 17 percent of retired people have a meal that doesn’t have the tuber somewhere on the plate. Families have potatoes with two-thirds of their meals.
“Families have fewer meals with potatoes than they used to and young people even fewer. And we don’t expect that trend will shift unless we invest in changing the way the potato is perceived,” he said.
The British council is now targeting its message that potatoes are a healthier starch than pasta or rice, at a younger demographic.
“Potatoes have 72 calories per 100 grams of cooked weight. This compares well to pasta at 86 and rice with 138.
Fat, too, is better at 0.1 grams while pasta is 0.5 grams and rice is 1.3 grams,” said Pieterse.
The council is selling consumers on shorter, 15 minute cooking times for small, fresh packed potatoes.
“It has to be nutritious, fresh and fast. And from what we know now, we have to focus some of our marketing attention on men as they now do 45 percent of the grocery shopping,” he said.
Pieterse told Canadian growers that if they weren’t already documenting every application of pesticides and fertilizers, they should start this season.
“Consumers are demanding transparency in their food production and the sooner you give it to them, the better it will be for potatoes.”
Pieterse said while new equipment designs are continually improving picking and planting, the largest changes for seed growers are in the mini-tuber.
The small, rapidly multiplied seed stock that is stable and lower in cost to handle and transport makes Third World suppliers competitive with Canadian and American seed potato growers.
“You need to watch this trend,” he said.
Also on the mini-tuber front, French studies show that adding arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus to peat-grown mini-tubers brings up to a 49 percent increase in production.
Companies such as the United Kingdom’s Greenvale have introduced a proprietary mini-tuber treatment process called Accumulator that encourages additional sprouts that produce more stems and yield 25 percent more. The system modifies the temperature and atmospheric pressure at which the seed potatoes are stored.
He said the Russian DokaGene system continues to be a force in the potato seed market with its patented hydroponic technology for producing disease-free mini-tubers.
Consumer packaging is also a hot topic for the potato grower, said Pieterse.
Mountain King has implemented anti-greening bags in the United States, while in the Netherlands, NNZ European Biolplastics has released a biodegradable plastic potato bag.
