Agroplant: 'No customer wants to depend on only one or two potato varieties for processing.'

Every year in the first full week of November, the European potato breeding and seed trading companies operating in the Netherlands present their new varieties and latest breeding results to their global customer base.

Many of these new varieties are intended to be used some day for the production of French Fries. All participants at what we here at PotatoPro call the 'Potato Variety Presentations in the Netherlands' (of doodgewoon rassenpresentaties in het Nederlands) have one or more contenders in this segment.

This raises the question:

“Is there room for all those new French-fry varieties?”

That is the question Aardappelwereld (World Potato Magazine) asked the participating companies last year. And thanks to our brand new partnership agreement with them, we can report you the answers they got in this series of articles!

Agroplant, Medemblik

Jeroen Kuin, Agroplant, Medemblik:

“The answer is YES, there certainly is room for new French-fry varieties. If only because no customer wants to depend on only one or two varieties for processing.”

“If, as a breeder, you want to add something – better processing, better shape, more kilograms of yield and/or dry matter – there are always possibilities. However, the bar is very high, with a new variety everything has to be just right. And it's not at all easy to break into the European French-fry segment. At Agroplant, we've only been breeding for ten years and when it comes to French-fry varieties, only five years.”

“For this, we work together with Fobek, in which we have a share as a trading company.”

Jeroen Kuin:

“A variety we already have is the Metro,with which we're really successful. This is a typical French-fry variety for export to big customers like Cuba, and we also sell to Pakistan and we've recently also been registered in Bangladesh. ”

“It's an excellent variety for the production of French fries in faraway countries, but not for the European premier league..”

“Although, this year, the manufacturers would have been very happy with the Metro, because it has exactly the characteristics that the European varieties lacked this year: drought and heat resistance combined with a high yield.”

“Last year, we already had 120 hectares of seed potato cultivation and we hope to have 160 hectares this year. So this is where our opportunities lie when it comes to the introduction of new French-fry varieties.”