Partners in Novifarm go for sustainable growth opinion and background after this happy start, Noordam and Visser started talking to Dick de Bruijne (48). He is an agricultural broker and owner of a 100 ha farm in Nieuw-Beijerland. De Bruijne indicated that he was looking for a good manager for his land so that he could more fully concentrate on his brokerage firm. This discussion and the many that followed finally resulted in his decision to join De Bruijne’s crop farm General Partnership. However, this was not the end of the Novifarm expension. In Greup, near Oud-Beijerland, three young farmers, the brothers Johan (32), Pieter (34) and Dik Kruijthoff (38) have a crop farm of over 130 hectares. Apart from doing the necessary work on this farm, the brothers each have important agriculturallyrelated jobs outside their parental farm. They were eager to continue the carefully-established crop farm, which they had taken over from their parents. To do this, they realised that further growth was necessary. They preferred to find this growth in collaboration, for which they found a ready ear at nearby Novifarm. Since 1 January of this year, the Kruijthoff Brothers are also partners in the Novifarm General Partnership. The Novifarm count is now up to eight collaborating part-time entrepreneurs, one full-time permanent staff and 600 hectares of arable land. Less mechanisation, more expertise ‘The first objectives have already been achieved’, explains Dik Kruijthoff. ‘From a cost point of view, we now have enough hectares to work profitably and we can effectively take advantage of the various skills and expertise of the partners.’ As far as these partners’ skills are concerned, Novifarm has also made a few winning moves. Thanks to earlier jobs, Dik Kruijthoff knows a bit about finance, insurance and fertiliser. For subjects such as mechanisation, trade and technology, the knowledge of Johan and Pieter Kruijthoff comes in handy. Leon Noordam (26), Arie’s cousin, knows about logistics, GPS and automation, Jan Boer is at home in the potato trade, while Marianne Visser (40), Hendrik Visser’s sister, does the accounts. As you can see, each partner has his own specialty. The cost advantages have largely been realised within a short period of time. All surplus tractors and machinery have been sold or traded in, meanwhile fully investing in GPS technology. Most of the tractors and machinery (crop sprayers/ploughs) have been fitted out with GPS. ‘You can work much more efficiently and profitably with that. Look at ploughing, for example, we have kept only one 5-share plough for all 600 hectares. Thanks to GPS, we can use this machine day and night and it ploughs as straight as an arrow. It also allows us to utilise the best land-working days in the field. We have plenty of hands to do this round-the-clock work’, the enthusiastic partners tell us. Environmentally-responsible food production Growth is, however, not Novifarm’s main objective, Kruijthoff points out. ‘What we want is a continuation of our family businesses, with a type of farm management that is profitable, and in which each partner has an interest and a task that suits him,’ summarises the Novifarm spokesman. ‘At this moment, we are still busy finding the right business model. The business strategy we would like to adopt will mainly focus on supply chain integration and sustainability’, says Kruijthoff. And potatoes will be given an important place in that strategy. ‘Today, our customers and end-users want environmentallyresponsible food production. One of the priorities will be that logistics are made as effective and efficient as possible. This requires minimum transport of products, food included, For this purpose, supermarket and consumer organisations have created incentives such as food miles. Thanks to the geographical position of our farms, we see opportunities to market potatoes, onions and celeriac closer to home. We are farming here south of the Randstad conurbation and in the proximity of the Rotterdam port. Moreover, we want to examine to what extent we can process and/or package the potatoes, onions and celeriac ourselves. Even if we have quite a few hectares now, that does not mean that we will do this ourselves. We can also look for other partners in the chain for these types of job’, Kruijthoff explains. Until we have developed our future plans, the cultivation of potatoes will remain rather simple. This year, Novifarm farms 130 hectares of consumption potatoes and 10 hectares of seed for own propagation. We currently have Ramos, Folva, Agria, Solist and Ariëlle in our cropping plan. The Ramos yield goes to potato processer Lamb Weston/Meijer in Kruiningen, where partner Jan Boer works, and the Folvas go to potato merchant Kleinjan in Goudswaard. The other varieties go to various customers. Rather two small ones than one big one As far as mechanisation is concerned, the collaborating partners have also made their choice. ‘We haven’t bought enormously big and wide machines but, where possible, looked for common sizes and multifunctionality. Rather two three-metre 26 Potato World 2010 • number 4 Pagina 25
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