USPB Conducts Largest Ever International Seed Symposium

The United States Potato Board (USPB) held its largest ever International Seed Potato Symposium in Denver, CO, August 1, 2011. This year’s seed symposium included buyers from Brazil, Burkina Faso, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Nicaragua, Egypt, Uruguay, Honduras and the Dominican Republic, along with US growers and industry experts.

The USPB International Seed Symposium is a one day seminar for USPB Reverse Trade Mission (RTM) participants and US growers to learn about US potatoes and international markets and to begin building commercial relationships. This event included presentations on US potato varieties, seed cutting, exporting, seed certification and target market industry updates.

“Buyers from our target markets were pleased with the event and the speakers,” said Sarah Mahler, USPB International Marketing Manager—Seed. “This year we also had a record number of US growers attend the event.  Having US growers attend this event is a key to helping build buyer/seller relationships and allows our international participants to meet and talk with growers from each potato production region or state.”  

The 2011 International Seed Potato Symposium provided an educational session for international participants to learn more about the US industry and quality US seed potatoes, while providing US growers with insight into each of the international market’s potato industry and seed requirements. Not only does the Seed Symposium serve as a learning experience for all attendees, but it also helps build buyer/seller relationships with many opportunities for international buyers and US growers to talk one on one.

As part of the 2011 International Seed Potato Symposium, the USPB organized visits for foreign importers and growers from Nicaragua, Brazil, Egypt, Burkina Faso, Mauritius and Sri Lanka to learn about US seed potato production, varieties, certification and meet with US exporters. International participants toured Colorado, Wisconsin, Maine and California. Groups in each state visited research stations to learn about breeding programs and the development of new varieties and visited Certification Labs to learn how tests are run and about the inspection process for US seed exports.

Farm tours made up a large portion of each visit to give participants an opportunity to see commercial fields, greenhouses, fresh pack sheds, storage facilities, harvest, planting and machinery. Groups in Colorado and Wisconsin also attended field days to get more detailed information on trials with new varieties. During farm visits and field days, each group saw many different US seed varieties and look forward to adding some to future USPB variety trials in their respective countries.

Meetings with the US Department of Agriculture gave participants the chance to clarify their questions on inspection procedures, labeling and issuing health certificates. International buyers were impressed with the quality and transparency of the US seed potato system and continuing to work with the USPB and US exporters to increase US seed potato purchases.