Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, visited his department’s potato centre based at Tops Farm in Raphoe, Co. Donegal this week, to view the latest investment in the facility – a recently completed glasshouse.
While there, he took the opportunity to pledge his commitment to providing as much support as possible in reviving and expanding the sector, he also said further expansion of the seed area must be industry-led.
“It is up to everybody in the sector now to play their part to turn this opportunity into a reality,” he said.
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s (DAFM’s) facility at Tops provides mini tubers to the seed potato industry for multiplication in order to produce seed for certification by the DAFM.
It also provides a virus-testing service for the seed potato certification scheme and is also the curator of the national potato gene bank where more than 700 varieties are maintained.
The facility has been further developed through the investment in additional facilities to produce mini tubers.
This allows the industry to further increase the production of potato seed.
Inspecting the new glasshouse at the facility, Minister McConalogue said:
“This latest investment to the Tops facility will provide a significant increase in the production of mini-tubers for seed potato growers and is a significant support to the sector”.
“The ending of seed imports from Great Britain provides an opportunity for the revival of the domestic seed potato sector,” he said.