Oerlemans Foods doubles Potato Processing Capacity

Oerlemans Foods, a Dutch producer of frozen potato and vegetable products is concentrating the processing of potatoes in Broekhuizenvorst, while all vegetable processing will be moved to Waalwijk.

The capacity of the potato processing line will be doubled. In order to achieve this, the company intends to contract additional potato farmers in Rijnland, Noord-Limburg en Oost-Brabant.

Oerlemans mainly (80%) processes the potato varieties Première, Fontane en Challenger. Most of the required volume is bought on fixed price contracts.

In the long term, CEO André Hendriks sees opportunities to grow, both in Europe and Worldwide. Oerlemans currently exports to 50 countries.

Developing markets show an increasing demand for frozen products, according to Hendriks. This concerns countries in the Middle East as well as in South America.

As a result of the large harvest and the Russian import boycott on top of that, this has been a troublesome season. This is especially noticable at the two production locations of Oerlemans Foods in Poland, where the company focuses on Eastern Europe and the increasing demand from Russia.

As a result of the import boycott by Russia, the resulting excess volume had to be sold in Poland and on European markets. This has been accomplished fairly well, but as a consequence, now Polish farmers are cutting their acreage.