Peru must take advantage of its biodiversity to take advantage of international market opportunities, as it has already begun to do with native potatoes

(Agraria.pe) The International Potato Center (CIP) inaugurated this week its new state-of-the-art cryobank in Lima, the largest of its kind in Peru, and where some 3,600 accessions of potatoes, standard bearers of biodiversity, will be preserved. During the event, which was attended by various sector officials, the Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation, Ángel Manero, spoke, recalling that Peru is the world's leading exporter of blueberries and table grapes, second of avocados, third of mango, all foods that came from other latitudes, but that, on the other hand, did not stand out in the international marketing of potatoes, a crop native to the country with a history that dates back almost 8,000 years. As part of the pending task of making the Peruvian potato the protagonist of a new success story in value-added agriculture, he highlighted that this year saw the first major effort to industrialize the tuber with a private investment of 15 million dollars (of the “Tiyapuy” brand, ...