Pedro Martín wants the old potato growers of Tenerife go back to sell abroad this delicacy highly valued by some of the best chefs in the world. To that end, the president of the Council of Tenerife held a technical meeting yesterday in Madrid with representatives of the Department of agriculture and the Canary Islands Government to give a export boost to Europe of those also known as pretty potatoes of Canary Islands.
Tenerife monopolizes more than half of the production –2,700 hectares– of some varieties unique in the world. Nevertheless, its sale is prohibited abroadr for fault of a plague coming from America: Guatemalan moth. This insect, in addition to causing the veto on exports, kills between the 40 and 50% of the old potatoes that are harvested on the Island every summer, mainly in July and early August. Tenerife produces 45,000 tons per yearmainly in Los Realejos.
Pedro Martín put on the table a solution whose “efficacy is recognized and demonstrated” to kill the Guatemalan moth: the carbon dioxide chambers (CO2). “Regardless of their stage of development, we want to take advantage of the great gastronomic value offered by potatoes from Tenerife to position them abroad and turn them into a tourist attraction on the Island,” assured the island president.
“We must take advantage of the great gastronomic value of the island potato to position it abroad”
The worst plague since 1999
It is the new hope in the difficult fight against the worst plague that potatoes have suffered in Tenerife since 1999. The project RTA2011-00125, developed by the Canarian Institute of Agricultural Research, the Cabildo de Tenerife, the ULL and the public company Gestión del Medio Rural, has found a way to safely, innocuously and cheaply put an end to what is scientifically called Tecia solanivora. The solution is a storage chamber with a controlled atmosphere enriched with carbon dioxide. In 10 days, the potatoes are deposited in a chamber with a 50% nitrogen, 30% CO2 and 20% oxygena mixture of gases that ensures the mortality of all insects, larvae, eggs and pupae of this moth.
The Island Councilor for Agriculture, Javier Parrilla, provides an assessment that explains the firm commitment of the Island Corporation to this exclusive crop on the Island: “The export of old potatoes from Tenerife would be a fundamental impulse for the mediocrities, which are the most propitious place for its sowing». “Hence the determination of this island government to seek agreements that guarantee its sale abroad,” stressed the head of the island’s primary sector.
These varieties of tubers are also anniversary. They arrived in Los Realejos just 400 years ago from the homeland of the potato, Peru, and adaptation to the particular conditions of this part of northern Tenerife have made them native varieties, with unique colors and flavors, with sweet and fruity tones. that have catapulted them to maximum prestige. Orders arrive from all corners: Germany, France, the United States, South America, Arab countries, the Peninsula… But none can be met. The 29 varieties of old potatoes from all over the Canary Islands –also grown on La Palma and Gran Canaria– cannot leave the Archipelago because of the moth.
The insular director of Agriculture and Rural Development, Cayetano Silva, who attended the meeting together with Pedro Martín, explains that “currently the work is focused on the protocols that the potato must follow during planting, as well as its transport from the orchard to a CO2 chamber and from the chamber to the table of the country of destination’. “These protocols are fundamental because they will guarantee that, at no time, the potato is contaminated with the Guatemalan moth or any other pest,” Silva points out.
The Cabildo points out in a statement that the Ministry was attended by the Director General of Health of Agricultural Production, Valentín Almanza, and the Canary Executive, the Director General of Agriculture, Augusto González. Cayetano Silva indicates that this meeting “has been the result of the work carried out jointly by the technical service of Agriculture of the Insular Corporation and the Canary Executive with the aim of once again allowing the movement of Canarian potatoes in Europe, and promoting, in consequently, its cultivation and preservation in the Islands”.
The end of the moths
Scientists from the Canarian Institute of Agricultural Research have explained that the tests carried out show that after spending ten days in the chamber, all the insects die, whatever their stage of development, so that the risk of subsequent contamination is eliminated . This treatment aims to obtain its recognition as an effective post-harvest quarantine that allows export prohibitions to be lifted.
Precisely next Saturday the 24th, in the cradle of this delicacy, Icod el Alto, in the municipality of Los Realejos, a new edition of the Fair of the Old Potatoes of the Canary Islands will take place, specifically in the Plaza Poeta Antonio Reyes. The Papa Bonita Harvesters Association has its headquarters there.
The Facts of Ancient Potatoes
Cultivated area
Tenerife, the island with the largest extension of the Canary Islands
Tenerife monopolizes the largest area of cultivation of old potatoes in the Canary Islands. Of the more than 4,000 hectares of the Archipelago, 2,700 are in Tenerife. The other island with more cultivation of those also known as beautiful potatoes is La Palma. In total, some 45,000 tons are produced each year in the Archipelago, of which half are killed by the Guatemalan moth.
Icod the tall
The cradle of the beautiful potato
Icod el Alto, in the municipality of Los Realejos, is the cradle of the unique varieties of old potatoes. One of the main cooperatives of this tuber has its headquarters there: the Old Potato Harvesters Association of Icod el Alto. In these midlands, 13 of the 29 varieties are grown, such as the Bonitas, wigs, lilies, Borrallas, Colorada de Baga and Terrenta.
