PW-ACTUA Bring seed potato growers and buyers together ‘As seed potato suppliers we need to continue to focus on providing added value to the customer’, is Bas Blijdorp of KWS’s conclusion. Seed potato growers in the Netherlands show how buyers in Egypt handle their home-grown planting stock, and increase their mutual understanding. This was the main reason for the 5-day trip, which KWS Potato organised to this NorthAfrican country in mid-February. Two important customers there are Farm Frites Egypt and the trading company Daltex. They are important buyers of Santana, a variety that is particularly suitable for growing in the desert. ‘The purpose of the trip was to bring the seed potato growers and our buyers in Egypt together. The Egyptian market is one that has a growth potential for KWS and it has a high standard in the domain of quality requirements. So this is not without risk. We are convinced that by bringing the growers and the customer together, we’ll be able to face these challenges together’, Sales Manager Bas Blijdorp explains. ‘The trip taught us once again that we need to be more oriented towards quality and service. As seed potato suppliers we need to continue to focus on providing added value to the customer. This means: delivering even better planting stock with fewer viruses and less Erwinia. This can improve the quality of second growth in Egypt, which means less selection work for the buyers. Another point for improvement is the earlier delivery of seed. They would prefer to receive it in October, so that it can be planted earlier, which has the advantage of fewer harvest risks for the grower. The crop can be harvested before the temperature becomes too high.’ Combination possibilities ‘The focus was on the expansion opportunities of the Santana variety in the Egyptian market which, apart from French fries, is also emerging strongly on the local table potato market. This despite the need for more long, big potatoes with more dry matter’, Blijdorp continues. ‘The Daltex Agriculture trading company in the Egyptian capital Cairo is one of the biggest importers and growers of table and French-fry varieties in Egypt and has been our partner for many years. Farm Frites Hashemia Farms is the agribusiness where the company grows its own potatoes and propagates seed. Farm Frites and Daltex are both active in professional large-scale farming. It’s quite amazing how they can keep this up. Certainly when you think that there’s quite a bit of political unrest in Egypt. In spite of all that, the companies have been able to take steps to improve the professionalisation of the cultivation process’, says Blijdorp. Western mentality necessary Bauke Wiersma, grower and a member of the KWS growers’ committee has enjoyed the hospitality during the trip. He discovered a still enormously increasing need for Western knowledge and experience to further improve the local cultivation of seed. ‘They are still very dependent on our input of knowledge and good quality seed. But they’re also pro-active when it comes to becoming increasingly selfsupporting.’ Seed potato grower Martinus Hiemstra also discovered during the trip that the cultivation of potatoes in Egypt is definitely not easier than in the Netherlands. ‘It was surprising to see how they work there and how creative they can be. We’ve seen that cultivation is an expensive business there. It’s only possible in areas where you can irrigate. This means that the lease in those places is relatively high.’ Jacob de Jong, Head of Production and Logistics at KWS, wholeheartedly agrees with that. ‘Even if we moan a lot in the Netherlands about the wet weather, it has its positive sides as well’, he adds, laughing. ● Potato World 2015 • number 2 15 Pagina 14
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