Potato professionals to converge in Adelaide come 2023

Adelaide, South Australia has been named host city for the 2023 World Potato Congress (WPC), the first time this significant biennial business event has been held in Australia.

The 2023 WPC is expected to attract over 1,000 delegates to Adelaide for the week, generating in excess of A$4.5 million (US$3 million) to the state economy and almost 40 direct jobs.

Locally-grown potatoes for sale at the Adelaide Central Market

The event will provide an opportunity for whole-of-industry unification in the celebration of the world’s third largest food crop.

The WPC’s Old World meets New theme will focus on the importance and position the potato will play in the future, with topics for discussion and discovery at the congress to include sustainability, consumer behaviour, value-adding, technology in production, and pests/diseases and biosecurity.

The Adelaide Convention Bureau supported the bid effort by hosting event owners at their 2017 Agricultural Industry showcase – an annual educational event designed to highlight the state’s business events assets as well as its innovation and technological advances within the agricultural sector. The Bureau has been working alongside and supporting Potatoes South Australia ever since.

Potatoes South Australia presented the WPC board with an all new initiative which also featured strongly in South Australia’s successful bid to host the event.

For the 2023 congress, a WPC Trust for Developing Nations will be established, the purpose of which will be to help fund potato industry research, development and education in developing nations.

Philanthropic efforts will be made too, in the areas of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, improving water use efficiency, and increasing yields from a diminishing arable/useable area, among many others.

Damien Kitto, CEO, Adelaide Convention Bureau, said: “The agriculture industry is vital to South Australia through its economic generation, world-class innovation and job creation. Our reputation as a premium food destination continues to grow internationally and is a unique proposition for business event delegates. It is for these reasons, as well as the broader legacy impacts – increased global profile, knowledge exchange, trade and investment and global talent attraction – from hosting business events, that agriculture is a priority focus for the Adelaide Convention Bureau.”

South Australia produces in excess of 500 million kilogrammes of potatoes annually and 80 per cent of the country’s fresh potatoes.

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