Stet Holland: 'The point is to achieve significant improvements and not to have more of the same.'

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!

Stet Holland BV , Emmeloord

Jaap Brondijk, Stet Holland, Emmeloord:

“We always strive for better, where the bar is set higher and higher. That’s why there’s always room for new varieties. We focus on QSR fries, the high segment in the market. Length, consistency, a good dry matter distribution in the tuber and reliable growth on marginal soils are important here.”

“This means we work with product profiles where we tell our breeding department what important characteristics are desirable, what the current standard is and where we’re heading. We want to excel in varieties that have a clearly distinctive profile and the potential to develop into a seed potato acreage of more than 100 hectares.”

“We believe that due to the large number of varieties we have in the Netherlands, you can no longer see the forest for the trees. The point is to achieve significant improvements and not to have more of the same. At any rate, it is important that the yields of new varieties are significantly higher than the existing ones in the market segment.”

Jaap Brondijk:

“Unfortunately, yield is still one of the biggest drivers in the development of varieties. But we’re also seeing an increase in the growers’ demands for nematode, drought and Phytophthora resistance.”

“One variety that meets our admission requirements is the Leonata. This variety has a beautiful white flesh colour. It doesn’t show any growth cracks or flesh defects during the growing period.In addition, it does very well in marginal soils,which is a great distinguishing feature compared to existing varieties in the QSR segment.”

“Looking at the yield, the variety gives structurally more tubers per plant than the benchmark. This offers more yield potential for both seed and consumption growers. In addition, the seed potatoes of the variety can be cut well in consumption cultivation, so that big tubers also get a purpose as user seed.Industrial processors are now becoming interested in the variety.”