Lima's Municipality and Santa Anita market wholesalers on Tuesday commemorate Peru's "National Potato Day" with a dazzling display of more than 20 varieties traded and consumed by Peruvians on a daily basis.
Municipal Markets Company (EMMSA) General Manager Jose Antonio Luna Bazo highlighted the relevance of the event, celebrated every May 30 to showcase the variety and quality of these tubers.
National Potato Day is also an opportunity to present the delicious dishes prepared with potatoes, a crop native to the Inca country.
In 2016 alone, Santa Anita Wholesale Market (GMML) received more than 538,041 potato
tons (t), thus becoming Peru's largest sales center.
Most loads came from Huanuco and Junin regions (303,029 t), followed by Ayacucho (74,437 t), Ica (49,123 t) and Lima (41,128 t), as well as Pasco, Apurimac, Arequipa, La Libertad and Huancavelica, among others.
According to EMMSA, White potatoes accounted for 49% (263,580 t) of GMML potato sales, followed by varieties: Canchan (72,973 t), Yungay (68,387 t), Color (53,985 t), Amarilla (Yellow; 33,442 t) and Unica (Unique; 23,049 t).
LatAm's top producer
Last week, Peru's Agriculture and Irrigation Minister Jose Manuel Hernandez affirmed the Andean nation had consolidated itself as the
first potato producer in Latin America and the second in the Americas, only behind the United States.
Peru's potato output stood a little above 4.5 million tons in 2016, with an estimated 318,530 ha crop area and an average yield of 14.5 tons per hectare, official data revealed.
(END) NDP/DHT/MVB