The World Potato Congress (WPC) will be facilitating a roundtable for the private sector during the African Potato Congress in October, which will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
WPC acts as a catalyst to develop the potato systems in the developing world and strengthen its collaboration with those countries, which recognize the potential of increased potato production and consumption, as a way forward to bring food security and economic growth for the population, according to WPC.
According to WPC President and CEO David Thompson, the aim of this round table is to bring the various stakeholders from the private sector, which are already active or interested in the region’s potato sector, together at one table. There will be time to learn from each other’s activities, expectations and immediate needs.
Results from this round table will lead to networking support and ultimately will assist in developing a strategic plan to set up potato value chains for the East Africa region, according to WPC.
This experience and new ideas will also be used to develop a WPC tool box for the global potato sector, which will be finalized and presented at the next WPC congress in May 2018 in Cusco, Peru.
The roundtable will take place Oct. 11 at UNECA.
For further information and details, contact Romain Cools, chairman of the WPC international potato group for developing countries, at romain@fvphouse.be or Peter VanderZaag, board member of WPC, at pvzaag@gmail.com.