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According to José Manuel Hernández, Peruvian Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation, Peru is the leading producer of potatoes in Latin America.
Considering that the country is the cradle of potato cultivation where already over 10,000 years ago the delicious tuber was cultivated in the Andean highlands and taking into account as well that until today around 3000 potato varieties are grown in Peru, a position the country deserves.
In 2016, Peruvian farmers, and here mainly small farmers, grew 4.5 million tons of potatoes on 318.530 ha in 19 different regions. As already thousands of years ago Puno including the area around Lake Titicaca in the High Andes of southeastern Peru produces the most potatoes in the country, followed by Huanuco, Cuzco, Cajamarca. Huancavelica and Junin.
Right now the potato production has a 3% share in the gross domestic product of the agricultural sector and represents a major source of income for the local population in the Andean highland.
