Crisis or not, without breeding there are no solutions CULTIVATION AND TECHNOLOGY Bas Blijdorp, KWS Potato: ‘The KWS-07-274 is better than the Markies and Agria put together’ ‘This year, the theme of our varieties’ presentation is our company slogan: “Breeding Solutions”. That’s also what we aim for when it comes to overcoming crisis factors. As a breeding station, we do everything possible to provide the growers with varieties that are also marketable’, answers Bas Blijdorp, Sales Manager at KWS Potato in the village of Nagele. ‘It doesn’t help if you can’t sell your potatoes in a year like this one because you’ve got a variety that is less in demand. If you want to avoid that, you need to ask the opinion of your buyers more. Once you know what they want, you can start looking for a variety that fits your cultivation conditions best. This is called supply chain integration, a term that we, as a breeding station, also gear to. What you need now in the French-fries market is a variety that’s clearly better than the current standard. The KWS-07-274 is an example of such a variety and we hope to start working with it in 2015. Naturally, it’s not the solution for the current market situation, but it can be the answer in the next potential crisis. For example, this variety is clearly better in length and quality than the Markies and the Agria put together, and it has the same taste, flesh colour and frying characteristics. The better quality is mainly found in the optimum underwater weight and dry matter content plus its excellent scab resistance. The yield is also much higher and is even 5 percent above that of the Fontane. What you also achieve here is a lower cost price, an important factor which also counts in times of crisis. Another newcomer with a lower cost price is the Leonata. However, that’s not a chips potato for cultivation in Western Europe, but one that suits countries with a continental climate better. Leonata is a long variety that’s particularly stable as regards yield. Not the highest in years of top growth, but a variety that provides steady, above-average, annual yields. This is what growers and processors currently want: continuity, secure yields and a marketing guarantee.’ Jacques Vergroesen, Stet Holland: ‘Dirosso good for consumers in Southern Europe’ ‘Firstly, the potato sector is not in crisis’, Jacques Vergroesen, Breeding Manager at Stet Holland answers decidedly to the key question. ‘What you do see is that the consumption of fresh table potatoes is dropping. Here in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Scandinavia, an increasing number of people have stopped buying the unpeeled product. On the other hand, the consumption of the peeled product, both processed and unprocessed is increasing. The demand for freshly-peeled potatoes in cubes, slices, segments, par-boiled and fried is increasing. This is also the case for prefried products such as crisps and chips. So overall, the consumption of potatoes is going up. What’s important now is that we as a sector adapt to the changing demand. The consumer wants more convenience, but also less. With that I mean smaller portions. Most people hate throwing away food. Generally speaking, households are also smaller than years ago and the demand for smaller packaging is increasing. And you can respond to that with fresh unpeeled potatoes as well. Because you can also stop a shrinking market by offering an improved product. For consumers in Southern Europe, who still prefer fresh, we’re promoting the new Dirosso variety. This is a very tasty potato, firm and with a pure colour, which means that the potato doesn’t discolour but stays beautifully yellow. The skin is dark-red and that contributes to an attractive presentation in those countries where red-skinned potatoes are very popular. It’s also an attractive variety for both seed and table potato growers, because it yields high and has a broad nematode resistance. Next year, the seed potato acreage will be about 8 hectares’, Vergroesen lets us know. Potato World 2015 • number 2 19 Pagina 18
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