ប្រទេសឥណ្ឌា: HZPC, 12 Years in India, Calls Seed Potato Exports ‘Almost Impossible’ Today

India could export seed potatoes, but today it is “almost impossible”, according to Herman Verveld, Chief Commercial Officer of Royal HZPC Group, the Dutch potato breeding and seed company. He made the remarks in an Expert Insights session at the Global Potato Summit 2025 in India. The Indian trade portal IndianPotato published a detailed report of his talk on 27 September 2026.

“If I’m looking from a potato seed breeder, I also do see nice opportunities for India doing seed exports. Today it’s almost impossible to do that,” Verveld said, according to IndianPotato. HZPC has worked in India for more than 12 years; its Indian seed business runs as Mahindra HZPC.

Verveld gave the Indian potato trade five requests:

• open borders and sign bilateral seed export agreements;
• learn from countries that are further along the development curve;
• prepare for consumer trends such as home delivery, convenience and differentiated products;
• grow new varieties with cultivation methods adapted to them;
• align genetics, environment, management and society at the same time.

Demand and varieties

Verveld used population figures to show where demand will grow. The world had 8.2 billion people in 2024 and is expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050. Much of the growth will come from India, China, Nigeria, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, DR Congo and Ethiopia. His slides put world potato production at 226.8 million tonnes in 1990 and 374.8 million tonnes in 2022.

He placed India at the mass-market stage of food development, starting to move towards convenience food. By his own estimate, about 90% of India’s table potato trade is still very traditional. He contrasted older varieties crossed in the 1980s, such as Santana and Innovator, with varieties bred after 2010, including Alverstone Russet, Quintera, Castor and Norman. According to Verveld, newer varieties need less nitrogen, fewer chemicals and no excess water, but only if growers change their methods.

He also used a crop-performance formula credited to CGIAR: performance equals genotype times environment times management times society. In his view, a weak link in any of these factors limits the result.

ហេតុអ្វីវាសំខាន់

India is the world’s second-largest potato producer, yet it plays almost no role in the international seed trade. Seed exports need plant-health agreements between governments, not only good crops. A leading European breeder calling for bilateral seed deals shows that the barrier is mainly regulatory.

For Indian seed growers, the message is that export markets may open only if the trade and the government work together on protocols. For importing countries in Asia and Africa, Indian seed could become a new, lower-cost source in the longer term.

Photo: Potato fields in Todarpur, India (illustrative). Abdullah 467 / វិគីមេឌាទូទៅ, CC BY-SA 4.0