Peru celebrates annually National Potato Day (National Potato Day).
Today, potatoes are one of the most common and common foods and are found in almost all cuisines in the world. Although the history of its appearance, cultivation and use is different for each nation, but the attitude to this culture is the same everywhere – the potatoes fell in love and became a mass product all over the world.
But in Peru this vegetable is not just loved, here they have a special attitude towards it. Potatoes are considered a cultural heritage in this country and a national pride of the Peruvians. He is called here only as “dad”. It is no secret that the homeland of the potato is South America, and the Peruvians claim that it was in their country that it appeared about 8 thousand years ago. By the way, in Peru there are more than 3 thousand species of this tuber, and only here the largest number of wild species still grows.
According to the country’s Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation (MINAGRI), potatoes are a very valuable genetic resource that needs to be protected and developed. In 19 regions of the country, there are more than 700 thousand vegetable farms, and their volume of potato production is almost 5 million tons annually. This is not surprising, because the level of potato consumption in Peru is about 90 kilograms per capita per year (which is only slightly inferior to Russian indicators – about 110-120 kg per person per year).
But there are more varieties of this vegetable here – in almost any local supermarket you can buy up to 10 varieties of potatoes, differing in size, color, shape and purpose, and the Peruvians know how to cook a lot.
In addition, in Peru, almost every museum has rooms of potatoes, and in the capital, the city of Lima, the International Potato Center functions, where there is and is stored extensive genetic material – about 4 thousand samples of various varieties of this vegetable cultivated in the Andes, and 1,5 thousands of varieties of more than 100 wild relatives of potatoes.
The holiday itself, as a national day, was established in 2005 with the aim of promoting the growth of consumption of this type of vegetables in the country, and it is also celebrated at the national level. Traditionally, the festive program of Potato Day includes many concerts, competitions, mass festivities and tastings dedicated to potatoes, which take place literally in all corners of the country.