P ot a t o w o r l d CONTENT: Journal for the Potato sector • number 2 • 2018 Albert Heijn wants to offer customers more inspiration with new potato display units > 9 PW-Actua 25 PotatoEurope demonstration field has been planted under favourable conditions 29 Requested: new HDS varieties due to a sharp rise in flakes and granule production page 5 37 Potato trade reaches new highs 41 The World of PotatoResearch 42 PotatoWorld dish 42 PW Agenda Fruit Logistica: supermarkets continue to aim for sustainability > page 15 Towards a European TO (Trade Organisation) for Potatoes The Belgian potato chain announced that it intends to set up a Trade Organisation (TO) for Potatoes. A Trade Organisation for Arable Farming has been active in the Netherlands for some time now but it is not yet operating to the sector’s satisfaction due – among other things – to the need of resolving the specific levy problems. Hopefully, the possibility of authorising the TO via the combined initiative will help to restart the funding of the potato research envisaged by the chain. Given the developments in the European potato market, such as the increasing difficulty of keeping crop protection chemicals on the market, when setting up all these separate TOs I wonder whether it wouldn’t be smarter to aim for a European Potato Sector Organisation. After all, the potato crop is one of the most important cash crops, certainly in the EU-5. Also on the world market are European seed and consumption potatoes, varieties and French fries that are wonderful export products, generating a lot of income and employment. Issues such as research and lobbying with European politicians are, after all, precompetitive topics that the sector should address together rather than every single country having to solve them – and especially fight for them individually. Working together at EU level will ultimately give the European potato chain a stronger competitive position on the global market and unity in communicating with the European political arena. Speaking with one voice is becoming increasingly important, especially for politicians, who today seem to be more interested in green agriculture and less interested in its economic importance. There are already plenty of examples that this is possible. After all, the potato trade and the processing industry have already united in European bodies such as Europatat and EUPPA. By collaborating with these organisations, joint research can bring the European sector, and thus the entire European chain, to a higher level. I wonder who is going to pick up the gauntlet. Jaap Delleman Potato World 2018 • number 2 3 Pagina 2
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