Currently Bangladesh is producing more than 10 million tons of potato of which most are table potato. In recent times, there has been an increased demand of potato based ready-to-eat snacks due to change in food habit and rapid growth in urban population. Industrial potato varieties are the type of varieties which can be processed to make commercial products like French fry, chips, flakes and mashed potatoes.
Each type of industrial variety require a specific set of characteristics. For example; for French fry varieties, the tuber shape needs to be oblong, the texture should be fairly firm, dry matter content should be high, more than 20%, and very low sugar content with lower oil absorption.
The Government has recently declared potato as a non-notified crop for 3 years which means releasing new varieties have now become much simpler and less time consuming. As a response to this favorable policy, private sector players are working on releasing new industrial potato varieties. ACI R&D team is also working hard under the leadership of Professor Dr. Siddique to develop appropriate industrial varieties soon.
Dr. F H Ansarey
Managing Director & CEO
ACI Agribusiness
