During the 11th African Potato Congress, which took place between August 25-28, in Kigali, Rwanda, World Potato Congress (WPC) president Romain Cools spoke about the continuous efforts of his organization to be a partner of the African potato sector.

Cools illustrated this statement by referring to the active role of African potato specialists in WPC’s global organization: Dr. A. Jooste of South Africa and B. Lemaga of CIP who are both members of the WPC International Advisory Committee as well as WPC Director, dr. Peter VanderZaag, a long term friend of the African potato sector.

President Cools pointed to the new WPC strategic plan which no longer differentiates between the developed and emerging economies but aims to become a premier networking organization for all potato professionals active in the potato sector all over the world. He expressed his hope that the step towards more public/private partnerships could also lead to more successful potato projects in Sub Sahara Africa. He called upon the global potato sector for support to develop potato value chains in this region, knowing that financial investments are available.

“The link between these projects and possible investors is the one we have to realize”, Cools concluded.

The next World Potato Congress will be held in Dublin, Ireland from May 31 until June 4 in 2021 and Romain Cools assured that WPC and the local Irish organizing committee have committed themselves to developing a program on public/private partnership in Africa and other emerging regions during the next year.