Agri-food expert: ‘China could double potato production with Dutch help’

Jan Hak is a Dutch agri-food expert who has been engaged in Sino-Dutch agricultural cooperation over the past decades. He believes that with the help of Dutch technology and the Chinese people’s own hard work, it is possible to double China’s potato production, as proposed in the current five-year plan, thus making potato a strategic bulk necessity for the Chinese population. “China has set up a national strategy to make potato a staple food next to rice, wheat and corn. The Netherlands is leading in certain of these aspects. We could join hand in hand to reach a win-win situation,” Hak, head of QuaTerNes, a Dutch leading company offering services, technologies and systems, along integrated agri-food value chains, told Xinhua. Earlier in October, his group signed a MoU with Xunyi, a remote county in China’s central-west province of Shaanxi, to develop a project for multiplication of seed potatoes and a project for growing rootstock virus free. “We are talking about an investment of 20 to 25 million euros. Next to our own capital, the financing will include leasing and some subventions from the local government and banks,” he said. More