Testing Adaptability and Yield of Korean Chipping Potato Varieties (Solanum tuberosum L.) in Vietnam conditions

Potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) is one of the main and strategic crops which is roughly classified into three types based on their values in use: table stock, food processing, and starch production. For processing, Atlantic, an oblong and white flesh color potato variety, has long been a standard chip variety since 1976. The variety have been grown as farmers have contracts with potato-chip manufacturers. The world potato production in 2019 was 423 million tons. Korea’s potato production has declined gradually from 704,623 MT in 2000 to 376,349 MT in 2020, down nearly 46.6% over the past 20 years due to reduction of demand for domestic fresh potatoes, while potato imports, mostly processed potatoes (prepared, frozen and dehydrated potatoes) have increased steadily. The country self-sufficient rate was 71.2% in 2017. The United States was the dominant supplier in Korea with a 70 percent share (108,076 MT) followed by Australia with 13 percent share, and Canadian with a 7.1 percent share. Fresh potatoes for chipping are imported seasonally to avoid competition with domestic production, while prepared potato products (French fries) are imported through the year. The local potato chip processors use imported chipping potatoes during the off-season. Annually, Korea uses about 70,000 MT of chipping and of that total, about 35,000 MT are imported. Transparently, although its total production area has decreased gradually, Korean demand for importing chipping potatoes is still high. This study was to find high yielding of Korean chipping potato varieties which are adaptable to Vietnam condition.