Kontext

The Veneto region, with a production of 118,000 tons, on a cultivated area of ​​3,200 hectares, is one of the main potatoes centers in Italy, asserting itself for its high quality.


Among the provinces of Padua, Vicenza and Verona, in the municipalities of Montagnana, Saletto, Megliadino San Fidenzio, Ospedaletto Euganeo, Cologna Veneta, Pressana, Roveredo di Guà, Lonigo, Noventa Vicentina and Poiana Maggiore from the early 1900s, is identified in the alluvial lands along the Adige and Guà rivers an area suited to potatoes, the most important productions were obtained in the red clay soils where quality products were produced, with high organoleptic characteristics and particular color and brightness of the peel, which made them acquire the name of "Golden potato".


The denomination "Golden Potato of the Red Soils of Guà" includes various varieties grown today: Agata, Primura and Colomba, the most cultivated, Vivaldi, Cicero, Monalisa, Liseta and Alba.


The productive average of the area involved in the cultivation of the "Golden Potato" ranges between 40,000 and 50,000 tons per year, equal to a value of about ten million euros, an average production per hectare of about 55 tons and a gross salable production (PLV) of about 11,000 euros per hectare.


The potato sector of the "Golden Potato" is still suffering from the same problems, delays and critical issues of the entire regional and national sector, linked to the high production costs (about 8,000 euros per hectare) and to a low remuneration of the product sold (about 20 euro cents per kilo); it is therefore essential to carry out demonstration activities / projects that apply varieties, agronomic processes and conservation processes capable of creating added value for the sector.

Additional comments

With regard to conservation, it is possible to apply techniques and tools able to improve and innovate the storage facilities to maintain better and longer the quality characteristics of the harvested product, reducing the onset of bacterial and fungal rottenness, through the sanitation with ozone of the cold storage cells. Gaseous ozone is used at a very low concentration in cold storage to prevent the development of mold and bacteria; it is also a powerful deodorizer (Rice et al., 1982). By avoiding microbial activity on food surfaces, the shelf life of fruit and vegetables is prolonged.


The ozone treatment therefore allows to increase the added value of the product placed on the market due to a better quality and a longer shelf life that allows to regulate the offer on the market. In addition, an increase in productivity is obtained due to the average reduction of waste and returns due to defects from the current 15% to 5% of the stored product; in economic terms, a net advantage is obtained due to lower costs and greater quantity sold of approximately € 2.5 million per year for the "Golden Potato" segment only and around € 5 million for the entire Veneto potato sector. Moreover, a clear advantage is obtained also from an environmental point of view, since ozone is a molecule that rapidly degrades when in contact with air


turning into oxygen alone.

Additional information

As far as varietal innovation is concerned, the main need is the identification of varieties suitable for specific food uses (frying, baking, purée, etc.), which have good organoleptic qualities, little tendency to deformation, good resistance to the rottenness and high value of washability (resistance to alterations of mechanical, physiological or parasitic type: dents, scratches, wilting, peeling, greening, budding, deformations, parasites), subcutaneous stains, roughness, suberifications.


It is planned to carry out field tests of at least 2 varieties to be identified between: Orlena, Sme, Spectra, Laudine, Guadi.From the conservation point of view, the storable and storable product character of the potato makes preservation a factor of absolute economic-organizational value, this role is increased if one considers its impact on the quality of the final product; two elements are influenced by the competitiveness of the product: the conservation costs and the quality of the conservation process.


The quality of the product may be affected by unsuitable or non-optimal storage methods, thus causing an economic loss, the entire chain of potato manifests in fact a high infrastructural shortage in this sense felt by the sector operators who show the need to be supported by an intervention policy that attributes specific degrees of priority to this type of investment