Inside the World Potato Congress 2026: programme, speakers and field days

With the Congress less than five months away, the shape of the World Potato Congress 2026 — and the line-up that will fill it — is coming into focus. The 13th edition runs from 26 to 30 October at the Sawela Lodges and Convention Centre in Naivasha, and organisers are rolling out the programme and speakers in stages ahead of a gathering of more than 1,000 international delegates and an expected 1,500-plus Kenyan farmers.

The week is built in layers. It opens with pre-Congress thematic workshops — paid, specialist sessions on subjects such as apical rooted-cutting seed technology, international research collaboration and the UNECE seed-potato standard — before moving into plenary addresses, panel discussions and a trade show. It closes with post-Congress technical tours: field days and visits to Kenyan farms, research centres and processing plants, including the seed and fry operations of co-host FreshCrop. Sessions track the Congress theme, "Global Potato Partnership for Enhanced Food Systems, Nutrition Security and Trade," spanning food security, seed systems, sustainability and the value chain.

The speaker roster is filling out. The first plenary name announced was Dr Simon Heck, director general of the International Potato Center, who will speak on "Potatoes for the Globe." Marking the International Year of the Woman Farmer, organisers have built a speaker series highlighting women scientists and growers, among them Christella Uwase, and have since confirmed figures including Jamey Higham and Hamadi Boga. Presiding over the programme is the Congress president, Canadian potato grower and long-time Kenya mentor Peter VanderZaag.

Logistics are firming up alongside the content. Registration is open through the official website, with an early-bird rate running to 1 July and abstract submissions invited; Kenya Airways has been named a travel partner. Organisers have repeatedly stressed that Keynote PCO is the event's only official organiser, urging delegates to ignore unauthorised agents and book solely through the official site.

For the global industry, the agenda reads as a statement of priorities — seed systems, sustainability and Africa's place in the trade — and the field days turn Kenya's fast-growing sector into the live case study. For prospective delegates, investors and exhibitors, the months before October are the window to lock in a place, propose a paper, or line up the partnerships the Congress is built to broker.