Europatat new president Kees van Arendonk wants to strengthen the European voice of the potato trade sector

At its yearly congress in Angers (France), the new elected Europatat president Kees van Arendonk (Netherlands) has presented the proposal of the Europatat 2010 working group to invest in a stronger secretariat in order to strengthen the voice of the European seed and ware potato trade in Brussels.

This is considered a necessity as most of the legislation the sector has to cope with is currently made in Brussels. As different issues such as the revision of the plant health policy and the availability of plant protection products, or sustainability and the agricultural policy have a large impact on the potato sector, it is considered essential for trade companies and their national associations to have more intensive interaction on European level.

The “Europatat 2010 project”, which aspires to increase the budget and professionalise the work of the European union of the potato trade, will be worked out in the coming months, in order to be presented and approved at the next Europatat congress in May 2010 in Edinburgh (UK).