Continuation. Start here
At the end of October, a group of representatives of companies participating in the potato market, wishing to evaluate the achievements and prospects of the specialized sub-industry in the Middle Kingdom, went on a week-long trip to China, organized by the Potato System magazine and Agrotrade Group of Companies with the support of the POTATOES NEWS portal.
Dinar Kamaldinov, agricultural manager of the seed program at Vi Fry LLC
– It was a very busy week, we visited many different places.
For me, the Center for Selection and Seed Production was of greatest interest; I wanted to understand how everything worked there. We looked at how microplants and mini-tubers are produced (200 million mini-tubers are produced per year, the company’s potential is 800 million pieces). I liked that mini-tubers have a low cost - 0,4 yuan per piece, we would like to achieve this.
We were told that over 20 years, 35 varieties of potatoes were created at the Center. Seed material is supplied to 30 countries, but not to Russia. I don’t know why our countries do not cooperate in this direction, perhaps I missed this information, there were some difficulties with the translation of professional vocabulary.
My expectations for receiving information about aeroponic technology for the production of mini-tubers were not met (before the trip, I thought that it was widely used in China). It turned out that in the Middle Kingdom, as in Russia, traditional methods are more developed. They showed us the aeroponic installation, demonstrated how it works, how irrigation is organized, but they emphasized that this was more of a prototype. It is still too expensive to produce mini-tubers in it.
We visited a potato processing center where bakery products are produced. All these products consist of at least 30% potato flakes. Buns, bread, and cookies are sent throughout the country through marketplaces, and a number of items (with a long shelf life) are shipped to other countries.
The scale of the organizations' activities was simply stunning. China is not afraid of any sanctions; the country has complete self-sufficiency in potatoes, starting with microplants and ending with the production of semi-finished potato products. They have food security under control.
From general observations: there are a lot of greenhouses in the country, but the fields are mostly small-circuit, and a lot of manual labor is used. There is weak mechanization of agriculture, and certified seed production is poorly developed.
And about the country as a whole: it seemed that the Chinese were mentally somewhat similar to the Russians - we all love large volumes, scale: big cities, high-rise buildings.