A unique initiative has started in Berlin: local residents and organizations will be offered about 4 million kilograms of potatoes for free, as reported by the Kazinform portal citing DW.
The organizers of the campaign are the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper and the company Ecosia, which calculated that the weight of the vegetables is equivalent to that of approximately 800 adult elephants.
Such a quantity of potatoes could form a tower about 350 meters high or feed several hundred thousand people.
Currently, the highest quality potatoes are stored in a warehouse near Leipzig, where all necessary storage conditions are met, but unfortunately, there are no buyers for them.
The reason for this is the record harvest: this year Germany harvested over 13 million tons of potatoes, which is the highest figure in the last 25 years and exceeds the average long-term level by 17%. As a result of the sharp excess of supply over demand, producers are facing losses and are forced to spend money on storing excess products.
One farmer from Saxony proposed to deliver the surplus potatoes to Berlin, which served as the basis for this campaign.
