Agrico's Varieties and Seedlings Show 2024: Showcasing the Next Generation of Sustainable Potatoes

Agrico will welcome you to its annual Varieties and Seedlings Show, where the latest breeding results and innovative potato varieties will be showcased. The theme for this year, 'Next Generation,' highlights Agrico's commitment to sustainable agriculture with potato varieties that offer enhanced resistance to late blight. 

Variety and Seedling Show

For many years, Agrico has organized this variety show in early November to present company’s latest breeding results and innovative (new) potato varieties to interested parties from around the world. 

In cooperation with its affiliated growers, Agrico's breeding facility Agrico Research is dedicated to developing new potato varieties for all markets in which Agrico operates. These varieties form the core of their organization. Breeders, growers, buyers, processing companies and interested parties will gather in Bant on 7 and 8 November to explore breeder's latest varieties and seedlings. 

This year’s theme is ‘Next Generation’, referring to a selection of potato varieties with enhanced late blight resistance. These varieties support sustainable potato cultivation by providing better protection against this serious potato disease, thereby reducing the reliance on plant protection products. The added value of these sustainable varieties continues to grow. Agrico's Next Generation varieties pave the way for future generations in sustainable agriculture. During the Varieties and Seedlings Show, we will share detailed insights into their Next Generation varieties. 

Agricultural Cooperative will showcase company’s brands Agrico BioSelect and Semagri at this year’s event. Semagri will participate for the first time as an Agrico brand, while BioSelect varieties have been featured in past shows. Starting this year, the Agrico BioSelect and Semagri varieties will be presented in their own distinctive branding.

New varieties

This year, three new Agrico varieties have been added to the Dutch Variety List: 

Sidney, a variety for high-quality fries production, with long, oval tubers, excellent dry matter content and high yield. 

Leonore, an early fries variety with a high yield early in the season. Its attractive skin also makes it suitable for the early ware market. 

Janick, a variety with a high yield and high dry matter content. Its improved late blight resistance makes it a compelling choice for both seed and starch potato growers. Janick is licensed for cultivation in Denmark and is part of Semagri’s portfolio. 

Spotlight varieties

Agrico will also highlight six spotlight varieties during the Varieties and Seedlings Show. This year, one variety will be highlighted from each market 

Jolene (retail variety) is an early maincrop ware variety. This potato variety stands out due to its beautiful skin, making it ideal as a washed and packaged potato, as well as for fries. Paradiso (traditional market variety) not only produces exceptional yields with high tuber numbers, but also excels in consistency. Because of its robust plant, it is a reliable choice in warmer regions. 

Napoleon (fries variety), the outstanding potato variety for high-quality potato chips. Due to its excellent frying quality, even dry matter distribution and minimal sugar defects, Napoleon consistently delivers an exceptional final product. 

Armedi (fries variety) has perfect processing quality and produces tubers that are ideal for fries. The variety combines high yield, attractive oval-shaped tubers, excellent resistance to Pallida, long shelf life and outstanding processing quality throughout the season. 

The early variety Twister (BioSelect) is perfect for organic cultivation and is one of Agrico's Next Generation varieties. Twister not only offers natural late blight resistance, but also has a beautiful skin. 

Saprodi (Semagri) is an early maincrop, high-yielding variety. Saprodi has strong resistance to potato cyst nematodes and wart disease, making it highly suitable for starch production as well as flake and granule cultivation.