Europatat warmly welcomes PAYR, the Finnish Potato Sector Association, as National Association, elevating to 21 the number of countries covered by its membership.
Founded in 2015, PAYR brought together the previous smaller potato associations to form a co-operative group able to speak for the whole potato value chain in Finland. PAYR also promotes the potato sales and supports potato research. The association collects funding for its activities from projects and operators linked to the potato branch.
The board of the association consists of 9 members representing 8 categories of the Finnish potato value chain: food potato industry, food potato production, food potato and market sector, starch industry, starch potato production, seed potato, research and advice and early potato.
The current chairman of the board is Markus Jussila, who represents the food potato industry, and the vice chairman of the board is Timo Myllymäki, who represents the seed potato branch. Laila Matikainen is the representative of the association.
Every year PAYR’s members gather for a two-day Potato Winter seminar, where the aim is to provide potato professionals with current and important information on a wide range of topics, including research, regulations and technical innovations.