Bangladesh is going to export Valencia variety of potato to Japan as a Japanese company expressed interest in importing the potato, reports news agency BSS.
A top official of the company Seiya Kadou on Thursday expressed the interest at a meeting with Agriculture Minister Abdur Razzaque, who is in a state visit in Japan as an entourage member of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, at Westin Hotel in Tokyo, said a press release.
ACI Agribusiness president FH Ansari was present at the meeting.
ACI Company imported and marketed the exportable and industrial-grade seed of potato varieties of Valencia from the Netherlands.
Speaking on the occasion, Abdur Razzaque said more than 10 million tonnes of potatoes are produced in the country every year against the demand of 6-7 million tonnes.
But the demand of the varieties of potatoes that are currently being produced in Bangladesh is very small abroad, he said, adding that therefore, emphasis is being given to the expansion of exportable and industrial-grade potato varieties.
Noting that the government has already imported many high-yielding varieties of potato through Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC), the agriculture minister said work of expanding these varieties up to farmer level is underway.
“Besides, we declared potato as a non-regulated crop or denotified crop to facilitate import of high-yielding varieties privately to the country. Since then, many improved varieties of potatoes were imported and registered privately,” he added.
The minister further said the cultivation of these exportable potato varieties is creating a huge opportunity for potato export.
Seiya Kadou said that they tested samples of Valencia variety of potatoes in the Japanese laboratory taking from Bangladesh and informed the agriculture minister that quality of potatoes of this variety is good and it is tasty.