Abstract
Potato processing is becoming particularly popular in developing countries and French fries are the main product being developed. This paper describes the South African frozen French fry industry, identifying aspects for improvements for further growth. Although South Africa produces over two million tonnes of potatoes per year, only 17 to 20% are processed, mainly as frozen French fries. While this is a larger production achievement than in the past, trends in consumption show that the frozen French fry industry has potential for further growth. Industry expansion is limited by the shortage of suitable raw potato stock linked to cultivar and potato production capacity constraints for frozen French fry processing. The country relies mainly on two processing cultivars produced in localized areas, for which yields are also threatened by unpredictably detrimental weather conditions. Produce shortages often lead to subsequent importation of products from other countries. The lack of cultivar-specific information on the amount of land used, production tonnages and yield achievements restricts diagnosis of specific factors contributing to this shortage. Based on the overall crop performance, a region-based approach is suggested to improve yield achievements of the few cultivars used for frozen French fry processing in the country. This could be achieved by optimizing natural resource management, particularly irrigation, fertilizer and land use, in the four agro-climatic regions contributing to the processing industry. Furthermore, the number of French fry processing cultivars can be increased by increasing financial investment on local breeding efforts to develop new cultivars and by focusing foreign cultivar adoption on processing needs to increase the genetic diversity and safeguard against the effects of climate change.
Resumen
El procesamiento de la papa se esta volviendo particularmente popular en los países en desarrollo y las papas a la francesa son el principal producto que se esta desarrollando. Este artículo describe la industria del congelado de papas a la francesa de Sud África, identificando aspectos para mejoras para crecimiento más adelante. Aun cuando Sud África produce sobre dos millones de toneladas de papas al año, solo se procesa del 17 al 20%, principalmente como papas a la francesa congeladas. Mientras que este es un logro de producción más grande que en el pasado, las tendencias en el consumo muestran que la industria de las papas a la francesa congeladas tiene potencial para crecimiento más allá. La expansión de la industria esta limitada por la escasez de un suministro adecuado de papa cruda ligado a la variedad y a las limitaciones de la capacidad de producción de papa para el procesamiento de papas a la francesa. El país se confía principalmente en dos variedades de proceso producidas en áreas localizadas, para las cuales los rendimientos también están amenazados por condiciones climáticas detrimentales impredecibles. La escasez de la producción a menudo conduce a la subsecuente importación de productos de otros países. La falta de información sobre especificidad de variedades en la cantidad de tierra usada, los tonelajes de producción y los logros en rendimiento, restringen el diagnóstico de factores específicos que están contribuyendo a esta escasez. Con base en el comportamiento general del cultivo, se sugiere una estrategia regional para mejorar los logros en rendimiento de las nuevas variedades usadas para el procesamiento de papas a la francesa congeladas en el país. Esto se pudiera lograr mediante la optimización del manejo de los recursos naturales, particularmente el riego, la fertilización y el uso de la tierra, en las cuatro regiones agroclimáticas que contribuyen con la industria del procesamiento. Aún más, el número de variedades para el procesamiento de papas a la francesa se puede aumentar al incrementar la inversión financiera en los esfuerzos de mejoramiento local para desarrollar nuevas variedades y mediante el enfoque de la adopción de fuera de las necesidades de procesamiento, para aumentar la diversidad genética y salvaguardarse contra los efectos del cambio climático.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the South African National Research Foundation for financial support. Acknowledgement is due to Flip Steyn, Japie Engelbrecht, Sanette Thiart and Pieter van Zyl (of the Agricultural Research Council, McCain Foods SA, National Seed Certification Service and Potatoes South Africa, respectively) for the information provided towards writing this manuscript. Credit is also due to Mark Horan, of the Centre for Water Resources Research at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, for producing the map of South Africa used in this manuscript.
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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest and the research done towards the writing of this manuscript complies with the current laws for conducting research in South Africa.
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Ngobese, N.Z., Workneh, T.S. Development of the Frozen French Fry Industry in South Africa. Am. J. Potato Res. 94, 1–13 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12230-016-9548-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12230-016-9548-y