Farm Frites signs joint venture with Inner Mongolia Linkage Potato Co. Ltd

Farm Frites has signed an agreement with Inner Mongolia Linkage Potato Co. Ltd (Linkage) to set up a joint venture in Wudan Town, Chifeng City in Inner Mongolia in China.

The Joint venture will build a new french fry factory and target the premium segment of the Chinese french fry market.

The name of the new venture will be Inner Mongolia Linkage Farm Frites Co.. Linkage will own 75% of the company, while Farm Frites will own 25%.

Linkage is active in the potato sector for several years. The company produces minitubers and seed potatoes and is also active in potato cultivation and potato storage. Linkage supplies potatoes to several large customers and also operates a potato flakes factory in Wudan Town themselves. Farm Frites is one of the large global players in the French fry market with production facilities in the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Egypt and Argentina.

The new french fry factory will have a capacity of 70.000 tonnes frozen french fries annually and will be built right next to the current flakes factory of Linkage in Wudan Town.

The potatoes for processing will all be grown in an area less then 200 km from the factory in large scale modern agricultural operations.

Potato cultivation, harvest and storage will all be state of the art based on American and European knowledge. Potato Storage and Cold storage operations on the same location will complete what will be comprehensive, totally integrated production chain.

Yan Hongzhi, CEO of Linkage, highlights how through the the cooperation with Farm Frites they gain access to top quality know how on cultivation and processing of potatoes for the high end of the french fry market.

Piet de Bruijne, CEO of Farm Frites, sees the venture as an excellent opportunity to build a strategic position in the Chinese food market, the largest food market in the world