CULT IVAT ION AND T ECHNOLOGY Not the lowest price but one that is ‘appropriate’ What does it cost to grow seed potatoes? After the calculations of the Dutch Agricultural Economics Research Institute (LEI), a number of HZPC growers – together with AcconAvm accountants – started looking into the figures. The biggest differences in operating results seem to relate to strategic choices such as cooperation, or whether or not the grower took on strain development himself. W hat should a potato fetch? This is what the College of Growers of the Dutch trading company HZPC very much wanted to look into when prices in 2004 and 2005 reached rock bottom. In consultation with the HZPC management team, it was decided to call upon the services of the LEI to analyse 68 seed potato farms from various growing areas and widely ranging business volumes. On average, these growers appeared to spend 8,900 euros on one hectare of seed potatoes, which boils down to 25 eurocents a kilo. Only one-third of these costs could be directly attributed to cultivation. Furthermore the differences among farms were strikingly high: the costs varied from under 7,000 euros to over 12,000 euros per hectare. To find out about these differences, HZPC gave a number of study groups – together with AcconAvm firm of accountants – the opportunity to list all their own key figures in order to mutually compare them. Their starting-point was the economic cost price; this means not only yield minus actual expenditure but also includes the valuation of their own seed and any indirect costs such as replacement value of machinery and farm buildings, labour costs and any private expenditure (set at 38,000 euros per full-time worker). Thanks to the diversity of the farm businesses, a few interesting trends came up. Cooperation pays off Jaap Vermue was one of the members of a study group. As a former member of the College of Growers, he was one of the initiators of the cost price comparison. Together with his wife and son, he farms 70 hectares in the village of Startenhuizen in the province of Groningen, which are supplemented with 15 hectares of leased land. The family works closely together with Vermue’s brother, who has a similar-sized farm. Together, they manage the machinery and grow approximately 70 hectares of seed potatoes. For Vermue it was an agreeable surprise to see that cooperation rendered him an annual 250 euros per hectare, calculated over the entire business. ‘It proves that cooperation is worthwhile. We don’t expect to grow much more in the near future. If we expand further, the moment ‘Having extra costs can be worthwhile, certainly in a year in which money is being earned. You had better invest it than give it to the tax man,’ according to seed potato grower Jaap Vermue. Potato World 2009 • number 3 11 Pagina 10
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