Europatat: 'he UN International year of the potato doesn’t finish on 31 December 2008'

Europatat, the European Union of the potato trade, has made an internal evaluation of the activities of the UN International year of the potato 2008.

The overview of the activities in Europe shows that in most countries which are represented in Europatat a number of actions in the framework of the IYP2008 have been taken. Most of them included promotion of the potato as a modern and healthy staple food towards specific target groups. Some countries (Belgium, Ireland, United Kingdom) have focused on the school children with actions to help the children to grow and harvest their own potatoes and potato oriented lesson packages, others involved the consumers in their campaigns to illustrate the culinary richness of the potato and its history.

Competitions, websites, brochures, exhibitions ... all attracted the modern consumer to the traditional potato.

Also the history of the potato, conquering the world in 5 centuries from its birthplace of the South American Andes mountains has been illustrated in numerous media coverage and the travelling exposition throughout Europe : 'the Odyssey of the Potato' from the Peruvian authorities in collaboration with CIP in Lima.