TRADE AND MARKETING 18 promising French fries varieties for the entire world Maybell is just super No lack of beautiful girl’s names when we do the rounds of the new French fries varieties. This also applies to Michel de Nijs of A. de Nijs and Sons in Warmenhuizen. He has stylishly called his most promising French fries potato for the coming years Maybell. That’s not quite true though: only half the name was invented by De Nijs. His commercial agent from Egypt, who discovered the qualities of the variety, has a daughter called May. And that’s what De Nijs would have liked to call the potato, but there was already a potato called May somewhere in the world. And that’s why, very creatively, he added bell. That’s all about the name, now to the three most distinctive characteristics of the French fries potato. ‘First of all, the variety has a very early tuber initiation. In addition, the Maybell also has very strong haulm and very big tubers with a high frying quality. Frying tests with a 20 perfect chips out of 20 are just super, De Nijs responds enthusiastically. It’s basically an early variety, because the Maybell has a very early tuber initiation. You can Bastion is already being processed Size, yield and frying quality. André Postma of Kooij Selection company in Leeuwarden knows the three most important characteristics of the Bastion by heart. No wonder, because the Bastion has been around for several years now. ˝We’re a small company˝, Postma explains. ˝Sometimes it takes us a little longer than the bigger companies to get a variety to gain momentum.˝ But things are moving now, because French fries manufacturers such as Aviko and Farm Frites have meanwhile made a start with the Bastion. For the second year, the Bastion has produced well with a yield of a few hundred tons. With 80 percent of the tubers over 50 mm, you can cut quite a lot of chips. The variety is pale yellow and can therefore be used widely within the European food-service and retail trade. ˝Next year, we’re going to increase the trial field production. The variety is doing especially well in Great Britain. We regard the Bastion as a propalready harvest the tubers after 90 days. They already have a nice French fries size then, but the haulm is still fresh and green. If you want, you can leave them to develop a little bit longer until the haulm dies off. So the Maybell is very suitable as an early and mid-early French fries variety. And when harvested as mid-earlies, the tubers are very big and you have 20 percent more yield than the average of all our other mid-early French fries varieties. As a matter of fact, I think I can sell this variety everywhere. It’s also possible to export them to faraway countries, which also produce French fries. But the Maybell can also remain in Europe without any problem. Manufacturers from Germany and Great Britain are already showing an interest in the Maybell. Also, I can tell you that, compared to other varieties, this potato doesn’t use a lot of water and it can do with 10 percent less nitrogen. Now, isn’t that good for the footprint?’, De Nijs explains. er replacement and/or follow-up of the Markies. It’s also a high-yielding late variety. Also, the Bastion is not very susceptible to Phytophthora and, like the Markies, it’s nematode A resistant.˝ Potato World 2012 • number 2 15 Pagina 14
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