Potato Starch Coop Avebe realised one of its best results in a challenging year

This year Dutch potato starch Coöperatie AVEBE U.A. achieved a performance price of 77.10 euros a ton.

That is slightly lower than last year's record amount (78.41 euros) and is one of the top three performance prices of all time.

In financial year 2015/2016, which ended on 31 July 2016, Avebe achieved a performance price of 77.10 euros. The performance price combines the potato money paid to the members and the net result. That makes it the cooperative’s most important financial indicator.

The financial year was concluded with a cooperative profit of 6.5 million euros. This can be described as a robust result, especially in a year in which the prices of many agricultural raw products were placed under considerable downward pressure.

A subsequent payment of over 2.2 million euros to the members will be proposed during the members’ council meeting in December. The ultimate ‘payout ratio’ will be 98%. Despite a lower performance price the members received slightly more payment for their potatoes than last year on average.

Challenging year

The harvest year 2015 can best be summarised as ‘challenging’. A cold spring period led to a slowdown in the development of the potato crop. This prompted Avebe to start the processing campaign later in 2015. The heavy rainfall directly at the beginning of the campaign not only hindered a good start to processing, but also presented difficulties with the harvest.

The cooperative also worked on the commissioning of new production facilities during the financial year. This concerns the protein factories in Gasselternijveen, where two different types of premium protein are extracted.

Bert Jansen, Chairman of the board :

“We had a relatively difficult year in which we faced a number of operational challenges. Despite that we worked together as hard as ever on achieving our strategic objectives.”

“Once again we’ve made good progress with making Avebe even stronger.”