100 years of ZAP: from regional to global player TRADE AND MARKETING Why is that? ‘There are two important reasons. The first is that the cultivation of potatoes in Northern Africa has increased enormously in recent years, resulting in a growing demand for seed. The most popular variety is the Spunta which fills 25 percent the acreage of our growers. The second reason is the internet. Thanks to this means of communication, it is now much easier to have contacts in faraway countries. We have our own website, which shows the varieties we sell. As a result we receive applications from everywhere, which makes it easy to establish contact. We then pass these on to our representative, who takes it from there. ‘We’ve been growing and delivering top-quality S category since 1920.’ How can you, as a small supplier, stand out among all the other players in the export market? ‘We stand out mostly with consistent quality, because we’ve been growing and delivering top quality S category since 1920. Our growers know the trade like no-one else , because their knowledge and expertise is based on four generations. Also, the light, sandy loam soil here in the province of North Holland is excellently-suited for the cultivation of high-quality seed potatoes. Our maritime climate also helps. That’s why our seed potato crop suffers less from aphids, which makes that the virus pressure is low. The consumption growers in Northern Europe have known this for some time and the growers in Northern Africa, the Middle East and also in Eastern Europe have now also been won over. Thus the big secret of a hundred years of ZAP lies in the quality and expertise of the growers. ‘Not only that. We’ve also been extending various other services in the past hundred years to our forty members as well as to another thirty seed potato growers. I also see that as an important factor that has strengthened people’s involvement in the cooperation. We also inspect and grade seed for the members and the growers we do business with. For years, we’ve thought that this would come to end, because most seed potato growers now have the equipment to do it themselves. And yet, there’s still enough incentive to outsource activities, rush jobs, for example. One of our buyers from Agrico suddenly requires 100 tons of potatoes, for example. We then help him to get the amount together from the growers. What they can’t inspect and grade in one day, we do here in Ewijcksluis. There are sometimes years when grading doesn’t go smoothly because some lots are of lesser quality. Growers are pressed for time and that’s when they outsource part of the grading. To avoid potential problems with brown and ring rot infections, all the seed has been examined for quarantine diseases before it comes here. As an extra service, we can also print NAK (General Inspection Service for Agricultural Seed and Seed Potatoes) certificates here at the office. This service is free of charge for ZAP growers; we ask a modest fee from other growers in the region who want to use this service. So your cooperative will continue in the same way for the next hundred years? ‘As a small cooperative, we’re gradually returning to our original working method of a hundred years ago, when we also sold our planting stock ourselves. So yes, not a lot will change in that respect. The tide is right for us. In recent years, the demand for potatoes and high quality seed has been increasing worldwide, which gives us plenty of scope to operate independently. Thanks to modern means of communication such as the internet, contacts with customers both far and near are made very quickly, and that helps a lot. In addition, our growers do everything to remain up to date in order to guarantee quality. Affiliated potato seed selectors are increasingly changing over to mini tubers at the start of the process. This is to reduce further the risk of introducing problem diseases such as Erwinia. And, we don’t have any plans to expand the acreage. Our sphere of activity includes almost the entire province of North Holland and the seed potato acreage has been fluctuating around 1,000 hectares for many years. As long as the relationships among the members continue to be as good as they’ve been for a hundred years and the same applies to the financial situation within the cooperative, we have full confidence in the next centenary.’ ● Leo Hanse Potato World 2014 • number 1 7 Pagina 6
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