TRADE AND MARKETING The most promising varieties that meet the most important market trends AGILA, … ROYAL Francis Binst, Binst Breeding & Selection, Grimbergen (B): ‘New varieties for the universal bag’ ‘This is our first time here at the varieties presentations. The reason is that we’ve only just decided to seriously start breeding new varieties in more or less the same way as the others. We’re doing that, for example, with varieties for the Belgian fresh market. With this we’re focusing on the 365 bag, as we call it. Throughout the year, we’re using different varieties of table potatoes with more or less the same shape and characteristics. For years, the Charlotte and Nicola varieties have dominated the market and it was difficult to introduce replacements for them. The prospects have improved now and that is partly due to the economic crisis. The demand for potatoes in that universal bag has increased considerably and that offers more opportunities for introducing new varieties. This has created the space to successfully introduce the Agila, among others, as a replacement for the Nicola and the Charlotte. Besides, the important trend in Belgium is a change in the supply of French-fry varieties. The Bintje is losing ground to other varieties that both yield higher and are also resistant to nematodes. Nematode resistance is very important for growers, because that means that they can use land that’s of poor quality, for example because it’s infected with nematodes. We want to anticipate that with the Mont Blanc, a new variety from breeder Jan van Loon in Dronten (NL). This variety is resistant to all types of Pallida and combines that with a high yield.’ ‘What important trend do we follow? That’s a difficult question. Trends don’t follow each other very quickly. When the demand changes, we can only start giving an answer in fifteen years’ time. Only then will there be an initial result after years and years of breeding. On the other hand, it’s important for us to look ahead and think now about what will possibly be a trend in fifteen years’ time. That’s not easy either. You sometimes start breeding from the perspective of a certain trend, to find yourself in a completely different segment in the end. For example, years ago, we were looking for a suitable crisp potato for the Danish market, which could be stored at 4 degrees Celsius without using chemical sprout inhibiters. We found a cross that is now known as Royal. It was indeed an excellent variety for crisps and could also be stored at low temperatures. But when we were trialling the variety in other countries, the Netherlands included, it appeared to produce very big tubers and also had a high yield. This meant that we suddenly had the ideal variety for the French-fry industry. It now perfectly fits the trend: the highest possible yield with the lowest possible input of fertilisers and chemicals. We now suddenly have a variety in our hands that’s suitable for a trend we’d never envisaged.’ Steen Bitsch, Danespo, Give (DK): ‘Sometimes, a variety suddenly fits the trend’ FOB 2008-159-016 ‘What we’ve seen lately is that there are problems with the dry matter content of various French-fry varieties. This mainly concerns the irregularly-spread, dry-matter content in the tuber, which causes problems during frying. You see that after the frying process, because the chips show brown spots. We’ve been working on varieties with a regular dry-content production. It usually concerns crosses with the Innovator variety, which scores well at that point. What the manufacturers also want is a higher yield. A new variety that has this characteristic and of which we will certainly hear more is the FOB 2008-159-016. This is a cross of Lady Olympia with Innovator, and is developed by the Fobek breeding company in Sint Annaparochie.’ Kamal Smid, Agroplant, Medemblik: ‘Solve problems of dry matter division’ 22 Potato World 2014 • number 2 Pagina 21
Pagina 23Scoor meer met een webwinkel in uw reclamefolders. Velen gingen u voor en publiceerden clubbladen online.
Potatoworld 2014/2 Lees publicatie 32Home