This year’s main potato production season is coming to an end in Vietnam, and we can look back at a very good and successful season. Newly registered potato varieties of Agrico are showing excellent performance from the Central Highlands to the Red River Delta and Northern highlands. Farmers are very happy and eager to expand their potato production area for their next potato crop. Rene van Rensen (Managing Partner / R&D Director Crops) could see the latest results during his current visit to Vietnam.
Farmers in Son La (North Vietnam) are very happy with their potato crop and informed they never grew a potato variety with such good performance. Making the farmers even more happy is that they can sell their potatoes for a very good price. Especially when they see the cabbage prices at an all-time low this week (VND 1,000 per kg), the other main vegetable crop in Son La. With these good results they are eager to grow more potato next season and diversify their production from mainly growing cabbage.
Also in in the Red River Delta and the Central Highlands farmers are very satisfied with their potato crop this year. Of course with varieties from Agrico!
Good result with potato crop in the Red River Delta
These results are all spinoffs from the successful ProPoor potato project. One of the activities in the project was the testing, selection and official registration of these stronger, higher yielding and better-quality potato varieties. Besides the extensive field testing, Fresh Studio also tested with consumers which potato varieties they preferred. This to ensure a win-win in production and sales. The demand for potatoes in urban Vietnam is growing, mostly used as a “vegetable” in soups. Instead of importing fresh potatoes from other countries, potatoes offer farmers in Vietnam a good opportunity to increase their income. In 2001, Vietnam just imported fresh potatoes for a value of just US$ 0.3 mln . By 2019 this number had grown to US$ 108 mln and 120,000 tons (6,000 containers).
For more information regarding the project contact:
René van Rensen
Managing Partner / R&D Director Crops
Fresh Studio
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