China: Potatoes from Dingxi popular in export markets

Dingxi is one of the four major potato producing areas in China. It has been growing potatoes for over 200 years and is known as the ‘hometown of potatoes in China’. Dingxi has been making full use of its unique climate and geographic conditions to develop the potato industry as the main support for a strong economy, and as an important way to increase farmers’ income,” Mr. Dong, Head of Office at Dingxi City Potato Industry Office said.

“As the largest breeding base for virus-free seed potatoes in China, there are now 32 seed potato enterprises here, and they have built high-quality seed potato breeding bases of over 1.1 million mu, with a total annual production of more than 2 million tons of virus-free seed potatoes and more than 1 billion breeder seeds. The virus-free seed potatoes cultivated in Dingxi are sold to more than 10 provinces and autonomous regions in China. Ten years ago, Dingxi began to explore the possibility of exporting seed potatoes and found that our products met international export standards. Now, some of the virus-free seed potatoes produced in Dingxi are exported to Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, and Thailand. Potatoes from Dingxi are becoming more and more well-known.”

“Dingxi City is an important commercial potato production area in China. The annual potato planting area of ​​our city is stable, at more than 3 million mu, and the total production is at about 5 million tons. We also have a national-scale potato wholesale market and 6 large-scale specialized potato wholesale markets, 1,520 cooperatives, and a storage capacity of 3.55 million tons.

The annual sales volume of commercial potatoes in Dingxi reaches 2 million tons. In addition to marketing within China, commercial potatoes from Dingxi are also exported to Europe, Spain and other countries. The export volume has been increasing year by year, at about 300,000 tons in 2018. The commercial potatoes from Dingxi are very popular in export markets.

Recently, Dingxi signed a five-year export program with the Spanish potato industry for the export of 1 million tons of commercial potatoes. At the same time, Dingxi is also the most important potato processing hub in China. There are 28 leading potato processing enterprises whose processing capacity exceeds 10,000 tons, with the total processing capacity of over 800,000 tons. The production and processing chains are linked together. The potatoes that haven’t been sold are processed locally so that farmers no longer have to worry about their potatoes not being able to sell.” Mr. Dong said.

Potato processing facility

“In recent years, Dingxi City has strengthened its cooperation with international companies, and many growers and processing companies in the city have brought in equipment and technologies from the Netherlands. This year, Dingxi City is also carrying out a series of cooperations with Wageningen University from the Netherlands. During the upcoming China-Europe Potato Sustainability Symposium in September, the city will welcome potato companies from various European countries. With this, more people will learn about the potatoes produced in Dingxi.” Mr. Dong concluded.

More information:

Dong Yanwen

Dingxi City Potato Industry Office

Tel: 18293063859

Email: dxsmlsb@163.com