Hungarian spud is organic boon
18 September 2001
‘Hungarian spud is organic boon’
By FWi staff
AN obscure Hungarian potato variety is heralded as the way to a boom in organic farming because it requires no fungicides, report two newspapers.
Carlo Liefert, of Newcastle Universitys Organic Centre, found the Hungarian potato more resistant to blight than other Scottish and German varieties.
The Daily Mail says: “For the organic farming industry, the beauty of this particular spud goes far more than skin deep.”
British consumers spent approximately 9 million on organic potatoes last year – about five percent of the total potato market, the paper reports.
The organic market share is forecast to grow to 10% in four years, it adds.
The Guardian says there was a lack of organic potato varieties because blight that destroyed millions of pounds-worth each year put farmers off growing them.
Professor Liefert told the paper that taste tests “couldnt tell the difference between the Hungarian potatoes and bog-standard Tesco varieties”.