"There is no ideal potato variety," Christian Oßwald of potato growing company KWS Potato, Netherlands, recently determined. "Many different varieties are required." Whilst in the east of Germany people prefer floury potatoes, in the west people choose firm cooking potatoes. In other European countries other preferences are valid again.
The aims of the cultivation of consumption potatoes the is still resistance against phytophthora, plantain, scabs, cyst nemalode and stress. There are about 50 parameters, which are reached by the growers when developing new potato varieties. Special problems within the organic potato cultivation such as eelworm cannot be solved by cultivation alone, although not every potato variety is as susceptible.
The requirements of the foodstuff trade - oblong/oval not too large potatoes with an undamaged peel offer special challenges to the growers, according to Oßwald.
The trend with cooking qualities - at least in Germany - is towards firm cooking varieties with yellowish pulp. The trade also shows more interest in red-peel varieties as an eye-catcher.