P otato wo rl d CONTENT: Journal for the Potato sector • number 4 • 2012 Schouten focuses more on export and commerce after 75 years page 5 > 9 PW-Actua 23 French edition with European style 33 GLOBALGAP much easier-to-understand 37 The World of Potato Research 38 PotatoWorld dish 38 PW Agenda Ukrainian potato cultivation professionalises > page 12 Across borders In far-a-way Kiev this summer, I saw lovely table potatoes on the shelves of a large supermarket, with which many Ukrainians were filling their shopping carts. The choice here was: ready-packed in net bags or loose to choose and fill your own bag. This is an indication that the Ukrainian consumer is slowly moving away from potatoes home-grown in the backyard and stored in the cellar towards buying food in the supermarket. That the rural areas still rely on subsistence farming can be easily understood from a historical perspective. As long as the rapid developments in cultivation continue at big companies such as Mriya and also the smaller growers such as Micola Sobchuk, major changes can still be expected to occur in this vast country. What is special is that the Dutch potato sector also plays an important role in this. It brings new varieties, modern mechanisation and knowledge, as you will be able to read in this issue of Potato magazine. Another example of a business that is not afraid of crossing distant borders is the Dutch family-run business Schouten. This company, which is currently managed by the third generation of Schoutens, is increasingly making its presence felt abroad, we are told by the company’s directors, Gerben and Arjan Schouten. By collaborating with export companies such as APH, machinery such as their precision grading system is exported to deep inside the Eastern bloc. ‘To keep up with developments, we need to move faster than we were used to’, Arjan Schouten tells us in this month’s interview. A significant number of Eastern Europeans also travelled to PotatoEurope this year. Their visits included the French village de Commerce. An exceptional number of Dutch seed potato companies had found their own pied à terre in this French stronghold. This seems odd, but it isn’t odd at all. The Dutch breeders and trading companies market the best varieties in the world. In France, the number of seed potato growers that also multiply Dutch varieties for French consumption growers is steadily increasing. These are mainly table potatoes for marketing in their own country and for export, which resulted in the French edition of PotatoEurope also forming an excellent platform for a big, international target group. Jaap Delleman Potato World 2012 • number 4 3 Pagina 2

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