China: Beijing: Plans to double potato area
It may come as a surprise, but China is already the world’s largest grower of potatoes with almost one third of the 330 million tons harvested worldwide per year coming from the Middle Kingdom.
But only a small proportion finds its way onto domestic plates. Beijing now has plans to double the potato plantation area of currently 5.3 million hectares (11.7 million acres) by 2020 - an area the size of Iceland. It is certain, however, that additional plantations and higher yields alone are insufficient, if now, in some areas, there is already a surplus in potato production. They have to be eaten after all.
While the annual per-capita-consumption in Germany is 60 kilos, the Chinese merely manage half that.Chinese population has its doubtsThey have their doubts about the "power tuber" and don’t really know what to think about the government’s plans.
Whether potato brands such as "Linda" or "Christa" will make it onto the gastronomic hit list appears to be a question of image. Beijing will have to succeed in its efforts to take the potato out of its niche position.Since the beginning of the year, China’s leadership has been laboring to boost consumption. Newspapers are full of praise for the potato as one of the healthiest foods.
Prominent potato advocates are going public via social media. And China’s state television broadcasts a cooking show which presents potato dishes exclusively, in order to establish the modern trend in domestic kitchens. In future, the tubers will be cooked sweet-and-sour, or served as noodles or steamed buns, completely suited to Chinese tastes.How such a campaign - food by order - can lead to eventual success may be difficult to comprehend for the rest of the world. In China, it wouldn’t be the first time.
Only ten years back, there was a shortage of milk and dairy products on the country’s supermarket shelves. So Beijing launched a costly campaign, praising positive health effects, and the nation obeyed.
A short time later, milk prices increased worldwide. ’The Chinese are using up our milk supplies,’ was a popular saying at the time. It will probably take quite a while until they have used up our potato supply as well: For the time being, Chinese farmers are rather afraid of being unable to sell their tubers and are calling for a government-guaranteed purchase price.
Fuente: http://www.freshplaza.com/article/139596/Beijing-Plans-to-double-potato-area
