01/06/2026
Happy International day of the potato, eat fries today to celebrate!
This Day is an opportunity to raise awareness of a crop regularly consumed by millions of people and of global importance for food security and nutrition. The theme of the year is “Where potatoes grow, livelihoods flourish”. The theme positions the role of potatoes in strengthening livelihoods for farmers and value chain actors from the highlands of the Andes to Africa, Europe, Asia, and beyond.
On May 30, we spotlight the potato, a crop regularly consumed by billions of people. Potatoes are a key crop across diverse farming systems globally, ranging from smallholders producing diverse heirloom varieties by hand in the Andes, to vast commercial, mechanized farms on different continents. Potatoes contribute to food security and nutrition as well as to the livelihoods and employment of people in rural and urban areas around the world.
This celebration also highlights the importance of this crop in the fight against hunger and poverty, as well as in addressing the environmental threats facing food systems. The role of small-scale family farmers, a significant proportion of whom are women, in preserving the great diversity of this crop will also be recognized, while the cultural and culinary dimensions of its cultivation and consumption will be highlighted.
At the embassy, we celebrated this international day by visiting Thaifex, Asia’s largest trade show dedicated to food and beverage sourcing, to support our Belgian companies!
Several renowned Belgian potato companies were present, including Agristo, a family-owned business specializing in high-quality frozen potato products; Clarebout Potatoes, one of the most important players in the world in the field of frozen potato products for private labels; Ecofrost, a Belgian family of three generations dealing in the potato trade; Fedeco Foods, Global Fries
copyright video: https://www.fao.org/international-potato-day/en
