TRADE AND MARKETING Growers in the Middle East are looking ahead FOCUS ON FRESH AND FAR From 2004 onwards, Stet Holland has no longer been active in the overall potato sector as it had done in the previous 25 years but, according to director Peter Ton, the company has started to focus more. ‘This means that, as a subsidiary of the HZPC Group, we focus on our strong points. Consequently, we operate in areas where we can make a difference, like the countries around the Mediterranean and the Middle East. We want to supply those countries with high quality table potato varieties. We now have some forty countries to which we export our varieties. We are currently focusing on thirteen of them. With extra attention and care, we are creating added value for our customers there. These thirteen countries are the Lebanon, Syria, SAudi Arabia, Israel, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt and the Sudan. We work more extensively in these countries, putting more energy into exploring the market, customs and culture. In this way, we want to become a good partner for the larger customers in the area. By getting closer to these customers, we want them to become our devoted clients. This means that they demonstrate their commitment to do more for our company, but also that they give insight in their balance sheet position, whereby we set strict standards regarding their solvency. In return, we give them support in cultivation matters.’ No cure no pay Breeding is extremely important within Stet Holland. The breeding work is outsourced to the HZPC parent organisation, supplemented with breeders of non-protected varieties. ‘On the basis of five variety profiles, we have given a clear indication of what we are looking for. We even have a no cure no pay agreement with HZPC. We only need to pay licence fees if a variety is successful. That saves us a lot of money every year compared to companies that run their own breeding stations. Our focus has brought us to the point where seed potato growers who wish to be able to supply high quality E seed with scab scale 1 to 1.5 and practically without any soil attached are at the right address at Stet Holland’, Ton continues. ‘As we complete most of our sales before mid January, growers are able to deliver potatoes to other merchant companies for the spring deliveries. This means that we offer them profitable business prospects. I think that’s important because I expect fights to break out over good growers in the coming years. It means that if you only shift bags, you won’t be able to get added value. Or you must opt to be active in a commodity trade like the Spunta market, where you earn money with small margins and large trading volumes. To achieve this objective, we want to have more varieties in our own range and have our turnover grow towards a minimum of 50,000 tons of export seed potatoes.’ No evening out Furthermore, we do not even out varieties as you often see in cooperatives, Ton tells us. ‘Our pool settles its bills by variety, whereby we have made transparent and clear arrangements about the costs of the merchant company and the revenues for the grower. We have the Advisory Committee to monitor activities on behalf of the growers. We also hold monthly meetings during which we inform the growers of developments in the market. Not evening out quickly takes care of any possible failures in our variety range. If one of our varieties is not up to standard, we must be able to say goodbye to that variety.’ Peter Ton (bottom right), explains the new Stet Holland varieties to growers Werner van der Bijl, Eddy de Laat, Herman Steeghs and Leen van Es of the Advisory Board. 10 Potato World 2011 • number 4 Pagina 9
Pagina 11Scoor meer met een online winkel in uw publicaties. Velen gingen u voor en publiceerden reclamefolders online.
Potatoworld 2011/4 Lees publicatie 22Home