Lima, Peru
December, 2006

The immense variety of Peruvian native potatoes represents a comparative advantage that the country should be developing. This was one of the conclusions of a seminar entitled “Dissemination of the Native Potato in the Peruvian Gastronomy”, which was organized by the School of Gastronomy of the University San Ignacio de Loyola, in December in Lima.

“It is not possible to compete internationally with the white potato,” pointed out André Deavux, Coordinator of the regional project Papa Andina, of the International Potato Center. He called on the Peruvian farmers located above the 3000 meters to continue growing native potatoes.

Peru has more than three thousand varieties of native potatoes. Most of them cannot be grown outside the Peruvian Andes because they require particular climatic and agro-ecological conditions. Papa Andina, through the project Innovation and Competitiveness for the Peruvian Potato (INCOPA in Spanish) has been helping to link the native potato producers with other parts of the produce chain to ensure higher quality in native potatoes, with added value and oriented to specific markets.

For this purpose, INCOPA has a partnership with the main gastronomy schools of Lima, to promote research projects among the students aimed at creating innovative and delightful dishes, which will help put native potatoes in the international gourmet market and Novoandina cuisine.

These efforts began two years ago, and they have already given created several innovative products for the markets derived from native potatoes. These products are helping to promote the nutritional advantages of the native potatoes as well as their industrialization. 

One of those products, T’ikapapa – specially selected and packed native potatoes – has received several prizes. The most recent was granted on the World Food Day, October 16, by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) for the successful promotion of small rural production.

According to FAO, the project “has achieved a strong partnership between the small Huancavelica, Apurímac, Junín and Cajamarca potato producers, private enterprise and a research institution to raise the productivity and quality of the potato, whose derived product has established itself in the exacting supermarkets of Lima, an experience that constitutes a valuable contribution to agricultural research and to achieving food security in the country.”