Venezuelans eye County potatoes

PRESQUE ISLE — Two Venezuelan officials said Tuesday they were impressed with the Maine potato industry’s seed breeding practices, its experiments and its ability to produce a good crop consistently.

Venezuelans Simon Ortega, president of Zuata Export Co. located in Turmero, Venezuela, and Lexis Villalobos, of the division of the development of agriculture in a Venezuelan state, inspected potato plants, breeding programs, machinery and storage facilities in the Central Aroostook area Sunday through Tuesday.

Through interpreter Tammy Hatch, Ortega said Venezuela buys 70 percent of its potato seed from Canada each year, and he is trying to break the Canadian hold. The remainder is purchased from Germany and Holland, he said.

Ortega, who has visited Maine before, said he was trying to rebuild his country’s confidence in the United States after a fiasco in 1981 that cost his country about $800,000.

In that instance, about 30,000 bags of seed bought in northern Michigan were damaged en route by boat to Venezuela. An international court found in his country’s favor, but the Michigan potato firm went bankrupt and could not pay the debt, said Ortega.

“There has been a continuing relationship between the two countries for several years and this trip would definitely have been a plus in that relationship,” said David Lavway, executive director of the Maine Potato Board.

The Sebago variety, of which Maine has few, is a preference of the Venezuelan growers, Ortega said. He said it didn’t appear that there would be purchases from this year’s Maine crop.

Villalobos said potatoes make up about 30 to 40 perent of the Venezuelan diet.

Participants in the visit were Bernard Shaw, commissioner of agriculture; Peter Mosher, director of agriculture production; Terry Bourgoin, director of the division of plant industry; Dr. Alan Henn, USDA seed program manager; Alvin Reeves, agriculture experiment station, Aroostook Farm and David Wilson, Aroostook State Farm and USDA horticulturist, members of the MPB, growers and shippers.

The Venezuelan visit was paid for by trade export funds from the Foreign Agricultural Service through the National Potato Promotion Board. The pair left Tuesday afternoon to attend a meeting of the Animal Plant Health Inspection Service in Washington, D.C.