d d potato tests have the chance, they’ll spread every piece of negative news to those export countries in which we are also active. As Chairman of the ESPG, you need to be very political and think before you speak. I sometimes say that every country has its own interests at heart first and yet still tries to get the best out of it for all of us.’ “Chitwoodi has now become a European problem, and therefore no longer needs a quarantine status.” Could you please give an example of that? ‘Well, a good example is one of our last actions. Recently, we sent a letter to Robert Baayen, the person responsible for plant health at the European Commission. The subject of that letter is the incorrect positive testing of quarantine organisms. We wrote the letter at the request of the Belgian seed potato sector. The motivation is as follows: In the year 2009, Slovenia incorrectly labelled a lot of Belgian seed potatoes as ‘infected with ring rot’. This occurred at the end of the season, which meant that the grower in question could no longer sell those potatoes. In the Netherlands, this would probably have been solved within the pool, but the Belgians are not so closely connected with their potato merchants as we usually are. The result was that the grower suffered enormous financial losses. In this particular case, the inadequate laboratory capacity in Slovenia was the reason why the grower suffered unnecessary losses. What we want is that, when a lot of seed potatoes has been labelled free of quarantine organisms by one of the Member States, other EU countries accept that guarantee. This is only one of many other examples. In my view, it’s in our common interests that Member States have confidence in each other’s test results.’ What are the other hot potatoes for the ESPG? ‘One other matter we’re working hard on is the quarantine status of Meloidogyne Chitwoodi. We think that this status can be dropped. Last year, lots of consumption potatoes from Belgium, France and Germany were packaged and subsequently reloaded for re-export to Russia. As these potatoes travel via the Netherlands, the nVWA inspects these lots. The results showed that they all had Chitwoodi. My conclusion is that Chitwoodi has now become a European problem, and therefore no longer needs a quarantine status. Fortunately, our own Plant Division of the nVWA has opted for a diplomatic way of tackling the problem step-by-step. I have also learnt that it takes about a year before an issue is properly discussed in Brussels and that’s before one can even start thinking about an action strategy. The wheels in Europe turn slowly, so start early and prepare your case as well as you possibly can’. And will that be successful? ‘Yes, I must say that we’re rather well-organised in the Netherlands. NAO chairman, Kees van Arendonk, is also Chairman of the European Europatat organisation. Jan van Hoogen, director of Agrico, is also Chairman of the seed potato traders of Europatat and I’m also Chairman of the European seed potato growers, thanks to the intercession of the French seed potato growers. This is a strong Dutch combination which we feed from our Dutch organisations such as PCC (Seed Contact Committee), for example, where cultivation, trade, retail organisations and government get together to draw up strategies for the future, among other things. We’re able to distil information from the entire seed potato branch this way, which means we can act much more quickly. We all do our utmost to obtain good results in order to keep the seed potato export going. The home market is also very important because, at 200,000 tons, this is our biggest customer. Don’t think for a moment that Dutch potato growers would start importing French or Scottish seed on a big scale. That would do enormous damage to our international image.’ A few more Erwinia problems and we’re there? ‘In my view, Erwinia is, indeed, a much bigger problem than brown or ring rot. We definitely talk about that in the ESPG. It’s only a pity that the Netherlands doesn’t score very well on this issue. By comparing international cultivation systems and looking at them very carefully, we again get extra information. It’s definitely something the Dutch sector can learn from. In this context, I’m thinking of the Danish flush-out system, for example, where stock is only obtained from S material without the option of doing so with A as well. The Danes want to remain as high as possible in the industry, as a result they’ve been successful in bringing down the Erwinia problem, at least, according to their statistics’. ● Jaap Delleman Potato World 2012 • number 1 5 Pagina 4
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