Loading ...Declare the International Year of the pope
The potato is the fourth most commonly consumed food in the world
The UN today launched the International Year of the Pope in order to highlight the benefits of the fourth most commonly consumed food in the world and its usefulness as a tool to combat hunger in the world.
In an event on the occasion of World Food Day, the president of the General Assembly, Srgjan Kerim, warned the “humble potato has a role that can not be underestimated.”
Kerim noted that the activities to be carried out later this year will allow “focus global attention on this main source of energy for more than 1,000 million of the poorest in the world.”
The world produces more than 300 million tons of potatoes, more than half of which are grown in developing countries, and its marketing in 2006 generated 6,000 million, according to the United Nations Organization for Agriculture and Food (FAO).
The initiative to declare the International Year of the Potato departed two years ago from the Government of Peru, their home country, with the intent to promote the growth of world trade in this product.
At present, only 5 percent of the 3.3 million tons harvested in Peru are sold outside its borders.
The Peruvian Agriculture Minister, Ismael Benavides, said in his speech at the opening of the International Year of the tuber that this recognition originating in his country will increase the productivity of their crop through technological advances and increased marketing in international markets.
“The potato is a staple in the diet of the world’s population, and its importance is obvious at a time when the demand for food grows on the planet as never been seen,” said the minister.
The executive director of FAO, Jacques Diouf, stressed at a press conference that the potato cultivation is increasing at a rate of 5 percent per year in developing countries, while declining 1 percent in developed countries.
Diouf stressed that the pope “in many places is the food of the poor” and their use has exploded in countries like China and India, so as staple food is surpassed only by rice, wheat and maize.
Therefore, the Director-General of FAO noted the importance of international efforts to reduce tariffs that still exist in the global market to imports of potatoes, and their derivatives such as starch lucrative.
The minister pointed Benavides in the same meeting with the press that the elimination of these tariffs is part of the North American Free Trade Agreement with the United States Peru That is awaiting approval by Congress in Washington and trade negotiations with the European Union (EU).
He noted that the pope offers a cost-effective alternative in poor countries to import sources of carbohydrates, such as cereals.
A kilo of wheat is sold in the country to 40 cents kilogram, while the pope is 15 cents.
Only in Peru, more than 600,000 families in the Andean region depend on the cultivation of potatoes, both as food, as a source of income.
Therefore, he pointed out the need to assist those small producers to increase the productivity of their land, which is markedly lower than that of farms that employ more advanced techniques.
