Africa-Press – Mauritius. The Floor price for Grade 1 Potatoes has been increased from Rs 27,500/Tonne to Rs 33,000/Tonne while that of Mix Grade Potatoes has been increased from Rs 24,500/Tonne to Rs 29,500/Tonne.
This announcement was made, this morning, by the Attorney General, Minister of Agro-Industry and Food Security, Mr Maneesh Gobin, in La Laura-Malenga.
He was participating in the official launch of the 2022 Potato Harvesting season for the reaping of local potatoes, notably the varieties “Spunta”, “Everest” and “Vigora”.
The Vice-Prime Minister, Minister of Education, Tertiary Education, Science and Technology, Mrs Leela Devi Dookun-Luchoomun, the Parliamentary Private Secretary, Mr Nand Prakash Ramchurrun, and other personalities were also present on the occasion.
In a statement, Minister Gobin highlighted that the local production of potatoes has been on constant increase for the last five years, and this year, the projection for potato crop season 2022 island-wide is very promising with an expected overall production of 16 000 tonnes of potatoes.
Government, he emphasised, is committed to take Mauritius to a higher level of food security by supporting local producers and agro-processing, which has now become a pillar of the country’s strategy on food security.
In this context, a number of measures have been announced in the Budget 2022-2023 to provide support to the community of planters for the potato sector, he added.
They include: the potato boost-up scheme to assist planters in purchasing seed potatoes and; an increase in subsidy on the price of seed potato from 50% to 75%. These schemes, Mr Gobin emphasised, have provided much support and brought significant relief to local producers of potatoes.
In addition, the Minister underlined that the Food and Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (FAREI) in collaboration with local potato producers are working on the production of clones, which have been found to be very promising.
“These clones are highly tolerant to diseases thereby reducing the cost of production and the use of chemicals in plant protection,” he indicated.
Minister Gobin also took note of the grievances of planters who undergo various challenges in the wake of climate change as well as natural calamities due to which they have to face constraints such as the unavailability of agricultural land and high cost of production, amongst others.
He also added that his Ministry and relevant stakeholders will do their best to address these issues. For her part, VPM Dookun-Luchoomun underlined that the production and quality of potatoes are very encouraging and new varieties of potatoes such as the ‘Vigora’ developed by the FAREI are also paying off as they are more resistant to diseases.
Furthermore, Mrs Dookun-Luchoomun expressed satisfaction that an increasing number of people are becoming more conscious of the need to consume locally and depend less on imports.
“Self-sufficiency is a necessity to generate an increase in local production and promote Food Security,” she stated.
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