Potato News from the Netherlands

Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima toured a Cypriot potato field and a production facility Tuesday during a visit to the Mediterranean island nation. The visit featured a long tour of the farm and facility in Xylophagou and Liopetri, respectively, in the island´s renowned potato-growing region.

As part of the organizational changes announced last year, Tummers Group is taking the next step in this process. With Lennaert van Dijk transitioning from Managing Director of Tummers Food Processing Solutions to CEO of Tummers Group, a new Business Unit Manager has now been appointed to lead Tummers Food Processing Solutions.

Just one kilometre from the coast, in the Frisian village of Minnertsga, between the windmills, stands the newly built shed with a renewed sorting line of partnership Schuiling.

DCA Market Intelligence strengthens its position as a leading Price Reporting Agency (PRA) in the international potato market with the introduction of the DCA Potato Platform and three new exclusive Frozen Fries Indices. 

Seed potato breeding and trading company Royal HZPC Group, expects to achieve a strong result for the financial year 2024/2025 (July – June), with global total tonnage potentially surpassing the 1 million ton mark for the first time.

Aviko, Europe's largest producer of potato products in the out-of-home segment and one of the top five world market leaders, has signed a trade agreement for seed potatoes together with Averis, a subsidiary of potato starch group Royal Avebe and specialised in the development, propagation and trade of starch potato varieties.

Sormac, the leading supplier of machines, entire processing lines and turnkey solutions for the fresh-cut fruit and vegetable industry acquires a majority stake in the German food technology manufacturer Foodcons.

The Consumption Potatoes Working Group (WCA) of the Dutch Agricultural Union (NAV) has made an estimate of the cost price for the upcoming season (2025). In recent years (harvests of 2022, 2023, and 2024), potato growers have already faced a significant increase in costs.

PotatoEurope 2025, scheduled to take place on September 3 and 4 at the Wageningen University & Research (WUR) Field Crops location by the Dutch city Lelystad, has announced the international conference titled 'Integrated Crop Management (ICM) – The Future of Potato Farming.'

HZPC Americas Corp. (HZPC) and partners are embarking on a new phase of supporting the North American potato industry with the creation of a Seed Potato Dealer Network.

The renovation of Agrico Research has started. Today the demolition of the various laboratories of the breeding company in Bant has started.

Mark Hoogendoorn has joined Solynta as Sales Lead as per January 1, 2025. In this role, he is responsible for leading the Sales and Business Development team and expanding the commercial introduction of Solynta’s true potato seeds around the globe.

Every grower and packer dreams of ideal growing conditions for perfect quality potatoes. Of course, the reality remains that quality changes every season. Still your customers will expect the same high standards. Labor shortages and strict demands add to the pressure, making it harder to run an efficient operation.

Royal Avebe achieved a performance indicator of EUR 118.62 (USD 128.57) per ton of starch potatoes in the challenging fiscal year 2023/2024, focusing on market-driven organization and strategic partnerships.

Optical sorting of (seed) potatoes is becoming increasingly popular among farmers and packaging companies due to its benefits in efficiency, sorting quality, and cost savings. Innovative systems such as the Optica CS and Q from Tolsma-Grisnich have only increased growers' enthusiasm.

Do you require additional capacity? Are you facing challenges related to labor issues or inconsistent quality? The world of potato packers is challenging. Batch qualities vary, but customer demands remain consistently high.

In a world where almost half of potential crop production is lost due to diseases, pests, and extreme weather, addressing the challenges of food security and sustainable agriculture has never been more urgent.

Most potato farmers across the NEPG zone had a lot of luck during October and the beginning of November to finish harvesting, even though some of the harvesting was done in very difficult and expensive conditions.