Peru Issues Regulation to Push Potato Processing and Exports

Peru's potato sector now has the operating rules behind a law it has been waiting to see implemented, one that promises to convert the country's most iconic crop into higher-value processed goods rather than raw tuber sales alone. Agraria.pe reports that the measure was formalized through Decreto Supremo N.° 005-2026-MIDAGRI, published in the Normas Legales bulletin of the official gazette El Peruano, and that the regulation for Ley N.° 31920 — the Law Promoting the Industrialization of Potato Cultivation — is structured across seven titles, 17 articles and three final complementary provisions.

The stated goals are broad: drive the transformation of potatoes into higher-value-added goods, strengthen competitiveness, and raise incomes for producers. The regulation also names poverty reduction in rural areas and economic diversification as intended outcomes, tying a single crop's processing capacity to wider development goals rather than treating it as a narrow agricultural measure.

Responsibility for implementation sits with the Ministry of Agrarian Development and Irrigation (Midagri), which will fold specific potato-industrialization targets into the National Agroindustrial Competitiveness Plan (Compeagro) and lead commercial coordination across the production chain. Two other agencies carry defined technical roles: the National Institute of Agrarian Innovation (INIA) is tasked with research and technology-transfer programs, and the National Agrarian Health Service (Senasa) handles the sanitary and food-safety standards that apply to potato production and processing.

Financing runs through a separate track. The Development Finance Corporation (Cofide), coordinating with Midagri, is authorized to structure medium- and long-term credit lines for industrialization projects, while the Ministry of Economy and Finance is set to evaluate tax incentives and guarantee mechanisms under existing legal frameworks. None of this financing is described as automatic — the language is one of authorization and evaluation, not a fixed disbursement schedule.

The regulation names the specific derivatives it wants to see more of: flakes, chips, instant mashed potato, starches and other processed goods. It also calls for linking potato production to agroexport chains, gastronomy, and large-scale commercialization — an attempt to connect a crop grown widely by small and family farmers to buyers operating at a very different scale.

To get there, Midagri is directed to promote pilot projects and industrialization plans through public calls for proposals, co-financing machinery purchases and providing technical training to producers. The rule also encourages the formation of cooperatives, rural consortiums and other associative mechanisms meant to give smaller growers a path into markets and financing they couldn't reach individually.

Technical assistance under the regulation is prioritized for family-farming organizations seeking to join agroindustrial chains, and the rule separately pushes the use of certified seed, with credit lines and guarantee funds earmarked for seed producers to improve the genetic and sanitary quality of what gets planted. Pairing a seed-quality mandate with the industrialization push suggests recognition that higher-value processing only works if the raw tuber supply is reliable and disease-controlled to begin with.

The regulation folds in environmental criteria alongside the commercial ones: efficient water use, reduced agrochemical use, proper waste management, and conservation of native potato varieties are all named as priorities. It also provides for consumption campaigns promoting processed potato products and for efforts to identify and expand both domestic and international markets for the chain.