On November 7th, a public workshop on the MainPotRe project was held at Pajusi Manor. The event included a formal ceremony where representatives from both countries, Kristiina Laanemets from METK and Ilze Dimante from AREI gave each other five potato varieties from their gene banks to be preserved as safety duplicates of in vitro potato plants.
"I am pleased that the collaboration between our institutes has led to the exchange of safety duplicates of potato genetic resources. This initiative will strengthen food security in our countries,“ said AREI’s researcher Ilze Dimante.
There are records of collaboration on potatoes already after World War I, when Estonian potato export suddenly decreased with the loss of the Soviet market. In 1929, Latvia bought the first large shipment of seed potato at the initiative of Estonian plant breeder Julius Aamisepp.
“Estonia and Latvia both benefit greatly from the long-term friendly collaboration between our countries’ gene banks. By helping each other, we can ensure that the invaluable potato cultivars of both coutries are safely protected in the neighboring country,“ added METK’s senior researcher Kristiina Laanemets.
With support from the Interreg Baltic Sea Region programme 2021-2027, the project "MainPotRe" enhances the resilience in marginal EU regions through policy recommendations and new marketing strategies for local potato varieties.
