TRADE AND MARKETING British Cockerill invests heavily in Dutch cleaning technology Because of increasing demand, the British company has recently installed a completely new line that includes the most modern weighing and packaging equipment. with the quantity of potatoes. And that’s why we’ve bought a bigger Tummers installation this year. It’s the KW600, which can wash and de-stone a maximum of 60 tons of potatoes per hour. It At the packaging machine, a staff member does random inspections taking bags from the conveyor belt to check for defects, numbers and weight. should do, because we not only wash for the packaging company, but also for the potatoes that go to the crisps factory. The crisps potato turnover has now reached more than 100,000 tons. Obviously, we’re very happy with our latest acquisition. Especially because it’s a fully-functional machine. In addition to a washer and a de-stoner, this machine is also equipped with two separators for floating eleBORN DURING A CRISIS AND STILL GROWING It was during the years of crisis before the Second World War that Ronald Cockerill went out to look for work. He finally decided to lease a piece of land and to start growing crops, carrots mostly. Gradually, his farm expanded, also because he bought a farm near York. During the war, he could increase his crops thanks to his participation in the Dig for Britain campaign. This was an initiative by the British government to supply food for the poor of the country. After the war, the company continued to expand and in 1967 the crop farm was taken over by his son Martin Cockerill. He expanded the activities with contract spraying, small packaging of produce and distribution. The company gradually specialised in potatoes with the focus on the crisps industry. He first sold to Tudor Crisps, which later became Smiths and then Walkers. Although Cockerill also grows over 200 hectares of potatoes himself on a total of 550 hectares of land, the company buys most from growers nearby. The crisps potatoes, over 100,000 tons, are stored at the Barmby Moor location. That is also were the new washing and de-stoning facility has been installed. As the name of the place already indicates, the soil in that area is peaty (moor). Many activities About 10 years ago, Cockerill invested in the construction of a small packaging station in Dunnington, near York. At that location, a variety of table potatoes in various sizes and weights from firm to baking are packaged. The small bags are usually packaged in bigger paper bags, placed on pallets and then transported to the supermarkets. Cockerill takes care of the transport himself with one of the 50 trailers and trucks required with his own drivers. Two more of his potato activities are the import of early table potatoes from France and the sale of over 7,500 tons of seed potatoes to the affiliated crisps and table potato growers. The crisps potato varieties are Hermes, Lady Rosetta and Saturna. He buys the seed in the Netherlands and in Scotland. The table potatoes Cockerill grows are the Estima, Marfona, Maris Bard, Nadine and Romano varieties. The seed comes from Yorkshire itself. Potato World 2014 • number 4 27 Pagina 26
Pagina 28Heeft u een clubblad, onlinekat of digi-lesmateriaal? Gebruik Online Touch: onderwijs magazine digitaliseren.
Potatoworld 2014/4 Lees publicatie 34Home