2024 extra-early potato export campaign begins

The Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Natural Environment, through the General Directorate of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development, has once again coordinated the start of the extra-early potato export campaign part of the third edition of the Regional Potato Plan of Mallorca.

The Regional Potato Plan, which was drawn up after the United Kingdom left the European Union, is a document that gives assurance to importers that the potato produced in Mallorca complies with all the phytosanitary and environmental regulations required by each country. In this sense, the general director of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development, Fernando Fernández, assures that “this plan aims to guarantee competitiveness in the export of potatoes from Mallorca with quality standards that fit the requirements that the importing countries will make, as, for example, is the case of the United Kingdom.

Thus, various services and departments of the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Natural Environment intervene in the potato campaign. In addition to the Agricultural Production and Plant Health services, the IRFAP laboratories are involved, which must analyse each sample to demonstrate the absence of the nematode known as Globodera, or a series of analyses to verify that the potato is free of other pathogens that control the importing countries. The Department must inspect each and every one of the plots. From this point, health certificates are issued that allow potato portals to take production across the border to the destination countries.

In this sense, last Monday, inspections of the 138 declared plots from which the potato will be exported began. In total there are 811 hectares, a surface similar to that of recent years. Thus, taking into account that the average production per hectare is about 38,000 kg per hectare, a production is calculated around an export volume of about 31 thousand tons.

In this campaign, in addition, the General Directorate of Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development will place special emphasis on controlling that the potato that goes out for export does not accumulate more than 0.1% of soil in the tuber. This percentage is what the receiving countries establish as a control level to prevent the entry of another pathogen known as epitrix.

Furthermore, and having obtained from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food the extraordinary authorisation for the use of Metam Sodium in the two previous campaigns, the general management has already sent a letter to all producers to verify the data of the correct application of this phytosanitary.

This entire “complex” control system in the potato campaign is established to guarantee the consumer in the destination countries that the potato leaving Mallorca complies with all health and environmental regulations. In this context, and in line with the recent mobilisations of the agricultural sector, Fernando Fernández recalled that “the quality standards that we demand from our producers are a guarantee for European consumers, but that, however, and for this precise reason, it is necessary “That we demand the same criteria for potatoes from other countries outside the European Union.”

Finally, and linked to the Regional Potato Plan, a series of investigations are being promoted together with companies in the sector to advance the environmental improvement of the crop through crop rotations. The research is developed through the Agri-Food and Fisheries Research and Training Institute of the Balearic Islands (IRFAP).

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