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M A Y J U N E 2 0 1 610 POTATO GROWER UNECE Meeting On Seed Potatoes Kimberley South Africa March 2016 by Willem Schrage Twenty-one delegates from four- teen countries Australia Belgium EU Czech Republic Finland France Germany Italy Kenya Netherlands New Zealand South Africa Sweden United Kingdom USA met in March in Kimberley South Africa for a UNECE seed potato meeting. The US delegation was from North Dakota and was elected by the Seed Certification Sub-committee of the National Potato Council. The funding was provided by Potatoes USA under its seed potato export program. The UNECE Seed Potato Standard has been developed to set common terminology and minimum com- mercial quality requirements for the certification of seed intended for marketing internationally. It is a unique international frame of reference covering seed-potato cer- tification aspects such as varietal identity and purity genealogy and traceability diseases and pests external quality sizing of tubers and labelling. The UNECE Seed Potato Standard can be downloaded from httpwww.unece.orgtrade agrstandardpotatoespot_e.html. Promotional Leaflet Available Copies of a promotional leaflet in English French and Russian are available from the UNECE Secretariat in Geneva. A contact from can be found at httpwww.unece.orgtradeagrwp .7contactcontact-form.html . Translation in Spanish is being done. The leaflet can also be down- loaded from the same website as the UNECE Standard. Inspection guides To enhance the efforts of a com- mon purpose in seed certification four inspection guides manuals have been developed. The Disease Guide the Field Inspection Guide are finished. PDF files of these two can be found at the same website as the UNECE Standard. Hard copies are not available because the Disease guide is out of print and not reprinted yet and the Field inspection guide has not been printed yet. The Seed Potato Tuber Inspection Guide and the Guide to Operating a Mr. Gerhard Posthumus of Wesgrow Christiana South Africa center explains to UNECE seed potato certification officials the production of high quality seed potatoes under the local circumstances.