Belarus: Seven New Potato Varieties Near State Registration
The national potato research centre in Belarus is completing work on seven new varieties, while the 2026 harvest has reached 43% of the planned area.
Potato breeders in Belarus are completing seven new varieties. The varieties are now going through the state registration process.
The work is led by the Scientific and Practical Centre for Potato and Horticulture of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. Pravda.ru reported the news, and the Russian Potato Union republished it on 24 September.
The seven varieties are: Feniks, Nesterka, Veles, Optimum, Vaildberriz, Likhtar and Asilak.
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A long breeding path
Yulia Gunko heads the potato breeding department at the centre. She said the path of one variety takes 10 to 15 years.
Breeders start with more than 120,000 seeds for each breeding programme. Candidates are then tested in five regions through the network of institutes and stations.
The centre has created more than 145 varieties in 95 years of work. Each new variety must show stable results over several seasons before it can enter the register.
The names of the new varieties were published, but their main traits were not. Details on yield, disease resistance and use type are expected with the official register entries.
For cooking use, the optimal starch content is 15-18%, according to the centre. For storage, it recommends +4 to +6°C, darkness and 85-95% humidity.
Harvest progress
The new varieties come as the 2026 harvest continues. By 25 September, Belarusian farms had harvested potatoes from 43% of the planned area. The data come from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, as reported by BelTA.
Farms had collected 317,000 tonnes. The average yield was 338 centners per hectare, or 33.8 tonnes per hectare.
Mogilev region led with 86,000 tonnes. Minsk region followed with 77,000 tonnes and Brest region with 66,000 tonnes.
Why it matters
Belarus is one of the main potato producers in the region and a supplier of seed and ware potatoes to Russia. Domestic breeding reduces dependence on Western varieties and seed. Seven new varieties at once is a significant addition to the national list. The real test will be yield and storage performance on commercial farms after registration.
Photo: A potato planter in the village of Klepachi, Belarus (illustrative). Викиникос / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
