TRADE AND MARKETING ‘We don’t want to be the people that can do it cheaper than anyone else’ a lot of pre-germinated Annabelle and Ariëlle. That was the end of that. The NVWA inspectors immediately imposed a planting ban. From then on, all the potatoes at the farm were cleared away as a precautionary measure. I can tell you that that almost drives you crazy. You don’t know where it’ll end. Or where to start. You can buy new seed, but imagine that, if you’re not infected, you’re left with a surplus. And a few weeks of high stress. Particularly annoying is the finger-pointing. When you’re declared infected, people apparently think: ”they must have used illegal seed”. Business relationships are suddenly nowhere to be found. You really get the idea that you’re a leper.’ store and package ourselves. I don’t think you can be more sustainable.’ crop farm. Already from the 1990s, there’s been a division into three categories: early, seed, and French-fry potatoes. And that works well. Everything fits: crop efficiency, labour and risk spreading. The not-so-easily marketable sizes are used on the farm and the remainder is sold. They have reached good agreements with their regular buyers Agrico and HZPC about this. Each of the trading companies has half the seed potato acreage with a range of varieties. After the purchase of the 140-hectare farm in 2008, the potato acreage is now exactly 50 hectares for each trading company. The purchased farm is a 100 percent seed-potato farm, which makes it even more ideal. The stores and the mechanisation are fully geared to the cultivation of seed potatoes and are completely free of Chloor-IPC. This fits in perfectly with our aim to build up a clean, closed cultivation system on our farm. ‘At that moment, we had a wonderful feeling about it,’ he describes their experience at the time. Until, in the spring of 2012, fate caught up with us again, and ring rot was found in one of the seed lots. Ring rot led to finger-pointing This was the second dramatic event in the Franzen’s entrepreneurship. ‘The affected seed had been graded at a central grading plant and, presumably, had been infected there. The consequence was that, on Monday 8 March of that year, the NVWA (Netherlands Food & Consumer Product Safety Authority) paid us a visit. At that moment, we were just starting to plant We’ve got to change As soon as Franzen had recovered somehat from the dramatic events and could put things into perspective again, he decided to change direction by reorganising the cultivation of potatoes at his farm. He minimised the seed potato crop from 50 to a maximum of 10 hectares, only for his own use. He felt there’s no point in continuing with the seed potatoes in the same way. ‘If you’ve been through a thing like this, you’ve had enough. I now buy seed of the highest quality from Agrico and HZPC.’ The varieties I buy are for the cultivation of table potatoes, export and processing. The list of names includes Annabelle, Nicola, Ariëlle, Inova, Milva, El Mundo, Challenger, Innovator and Agria. He wants to store, wash, package and sell the crops of these varieties and the carrots and onions, himself. He had already taken that decision in 2010, but after the ring rot business, the plan gained momentum. ‘We quickly found out that expansion hardly makes any difference in farm management.’ Offer continuity and quality Franzen realises that his plan to package and market his own potato crop can only succeed if he can offer continuity and quality. To be able to provide a proper stored product, Franzen invested in a state-of-the-art store for the storage of boxes. It satisfies the strictest requirements in the domain of food safety including Skal certification, and is also geared to maintaining quality. For that purpose, the cells are provided with state-ofthe-art cooling, measuring, controlling and computer equipment. All arranged and installed by Tolsma Techniek. For washing potatoes and carrots, he bought a washing installation from DT Dijkstra; this company also supplied a new bunker/ grader installation in a new shed. The necessary weighing and packaging equipment comes from Manter and Sarco. Many of the conveyor belts were supplied by Breston BV from the nearby village of Nieuwe-Tonge. Potato World 2015 • number 4 15 Pagina 14

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