TRADE AND MARKETING Dick Zelhorst, Aviko: ‘I am a staunch advocate of a form of direct W ith a turnover of 600 million euros and over 1.7 million tons of potatoes a year, Aviko is a major player in the international potato sector. Since 2002, Aviko has been a full subsidiary of the Cosun sugar cooperative. This means that the Aviko profit benefits the beet price of Cosun members. At the end of January it was announced that – on account of reasonably good financial results – the beet price will again be supplemented in calendar year 2009. Aviko’s director for raw materials, Dick Zelhorst, sees opportunities for higher chain returns. ‘Growers should no longer think of the processing industry as a competitor. We are their marketing partner, and their fellow growers elsewhere in the world are the competitors.’ Discussions about contract prices are currently ongoing in the potato sector. Up to now, the prices that have been agreed are lower than last year. Is this something that growers can work with? ‘Whether a grower will be able to earn enough at the current contract prices, I cannot say. We see that the cost price for growers who cultivate Agrias for us varies enormously. There are growers who have a cost price below 11 euros, storage included, but there are also growers who have a cost price of 15 euros per 100 kilograms. Our contract price for good quality Agrias, delivered at the end of April, is around 13 euros. I can at least say that we definitely do not focus on the lower end of the market, which you see a lot in Belgium. Concentrating on a low price instead of quality is not part of Aviko’s policy. If we want to be the winners here, we need to distinguish ourselves in quality, innovation and professionalism.’ ‘If we want to be the winners here, we need to distinguish ourselves in quality, innovation and professionalism.’ So you pay more than the Belgians? ‘Yes, we pay more for potatoes in the Netherlands than in Belgium. You can see this in the Belgian contracts and Belgian prices. We have a company in Belgium ourselves, where we buy potatoes from Belgian growers at Belgian prices. They are lower than the average prices of Rotterdam, Goes or Emmeloord. What we need to do in the Netherlands, therefore, is to earn back the maximum amount of this higher price by using quality potatoes. And we do that by manufacturing high quality products and selling them in higher quality markets.’ What are those, higher quality markets? ‘They are the quick-service restaurants, for example. This is where we sell our added-value products such as our au gratins, crunchies, chips culinaire or our deepfreeze one-pan-meals. We market these products under our own brand. This applies to both the retail and the food markets. The importance of addedvalue products under the Aviko label is still of increasing importance to us. It is one of the reasons, for example, that we acquired the EuroFreez company at the time. We produce quite a lot of potato specialties here. Moreover, it’s an ambitious market to work in, where a manufacturer can increase his profit margins a bit more. Let’s be clear, these are not mega margins, but it’s always better than to end up in a price war with Belgium. To make specialties, one really has to provide added value. It means we have to ensure that we earn more money with this better quality. If we don’t succeed on that score, it will be the end and we will lose the fight no matter what.’ Many Dutch consumers go for cheap products. Definitely in a time of crisis. How are you going to win them over sufficiently to those luxury products? ‘We will have to put in a great deal of effort to continue to stand out from the competition. We will continue to do this, but it isn’t easy. There are other companies that also wanted to 4 Potato World 2010 • number 2 Pagina 3
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