TRADE AND MARKET I NG Focus on ‘the variety as a brand’ at Fruit Logistica Double carry box from Belgium The Aardappelhoeve farming and trading company from Tielt (Belgium) sells many 5 kg bags to the Belgian supermarket chain Colruyt. They’re doing very well, but they’re not particularly handy for customers who use both firm and floury potatoes. For the average family, two 5 kg bags are usually too much. That’s why Colruyt asked for a solution, which The Aardappelhoeve has found in the shape of a double carry box with two spaces for 2.5 kg of potatoes: the DuoBox. ‘User-friendly and recyclable’, says Quality and Product Manager Ruben Nemegheer. For the floury potatoes, the consumer can choose Agria or Nomination for Perupas The Colourful Perupas concept is not new. But thanks to its nomination for the innovation prize of Fruit Logistica, the colourful HZPC potato programme was very much in the picture again. Breeder Jeroen Bakker was visibly happy with all the attention. ‘We’ve been busy adding more taste and colour to our varieties for many years. But it’s only now that people are really getting interested. We have more demands than we can supply.’ Meanwhile, HZPC keeps on working on the contents of their Perupa programme and has recently added a number of new varieties. We don’t have names for them yet, but there’s an orange-skinned, a red and a red-yellow variant. ‘Colour and taste are most important and we’d like them to have some added health value as well’, Bakker explains. ‘In addition, we’re trying to improve the cultivation quality further.’ He predicts further expansion in this special segment in the coming years, but emphasises that it will always be a niche product, so the seed potato acreage will only increase by a few hectares. New at their stand was the introduction of the 58-potatoes concept, focused on the demanding consumer who is concerned about how healthy his diet and lifestyle are. The figure 58 refers to the Challenger, the firm potatoes are varieties such as Marilyn or Laurette. The Aardappelhoeve is the only grower of Laurette in Belgium and it also supplies the variety in a glossy 2.5 kg package. Organic from the Netherlands The fastest growers in The Aardappelhoeve’s range of varieties are its organically-grown potatoes. ‘We’re the biggest packaging company of organically-grown potatoes in Belgium. One-fifth of the potatoes that we package are organically cultivated’, says Nemegheer, which is 7,000 to 8,000 packages a year. All these potatoes are grown in the Netherlands. ‘The Netherlands is far ahead of us as far as organic cultivation is concerned. There are a few people in Wallonia who’ve started to grow organically, but we can do much better. As a relativelysmall company, The Aardappelhoeve can’t afFord to set up a separate processing line only for organic cultivation. And this isn’t actually required in Belgium. At the Aardappelhoeve, we start the day with the washing and packaging of the organic produce and change over to the conventionallygrown potatoes later. However, the bulk hoppers, boxes and cooling are all separate. 58 calories in a 100 grams portion of potatoes. Although an average potato variety (83 kcal) already contains only half the energy of rice and pasta, HZPC still thinks they can win over a group of consumers. The trading company has three varieties that comply with this concept: Colomba, Carrera and Adora. They are characterised by lower starch content. Potato World 2016 • number 3 23 Pagina 22
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