Focus on taste and quality at Flevostar Potato TRADE AND MARKET I NG 1000th one that the company had sold in its 90 years of existence. Besides investing in technology, we’ll be expanding our business with a few new divisions. The first one is the distribution trade. We’re also going to buy French-fry potatoes from the farmer and resell them to the processing industry at home and abroad. And we want the farmers to grow what our customers like. This can be free varieties, but also varieties from various trading companies. At the same time, we’ll look for opportunities to market our own varieties and have them propagated and sold on the consumption market. Already four ‘We specifically focus on taste!’ ‘What the consumer wants to eat, we’ll have to deliver’, was and is the view that Jaap Kodde has felt very strongly about for the past twenty-five years. moment, two-thirds of our turnover is delivered washed and one-third still unwashed’, Kodde describes the importance of washing in the current potato market. ‘As I’ve already been working from Dronten for a few months now, I already know which lots are suitable (Tukker Tuffels) and for which lots we’ve got to find other destinations. That’s important information for our growers. In this way, we’ll be able to sell all our potato lots’, Riezebos explains. ‘Because we’re now exploring the domestic market further, we’ve been able to realise quite a good sales growth,’ Verhagen adds. ‘Furthermore, together with Willem Dijk, we intend to actively target the German market. The company was already active on the German market but has now also employed two more staff’, Verhage explains an initial result of the collaboration. ‘By working in this way, there’ll be a fantastic combination. And I’ll continue to be involved in the other side of the market. If cauliflowers are on special offer, for example, you’ll know that more potatoes will be sold. The potatoes themselves are not very sexy in my view. They go together with other food. At Willem Dijk we know that when vegetables are cheap, potatoes also sell well. That’s important information’, Riezebos emphasises. Investing in technology ‘The export story and the domestic trade of Flevostar are already well in organised. By looking at the future, that won’t be enough’, Verhage emphasises. ‘In order to meet the demand for more sizes for the export trade, we recently invested in a new Dijkstra grading machine. This machine appeared to the years ago, I started asking Dutch trading companies whether they could offer us an exclusive variety. Their answers were brief and to the point: ‘No, we can’t.’ In the new situation, we’ve now entered into collaboration with a Scottish breeding and seed potato trading company in Caithness. With the varieties of the Scottish company we’re examining whether there are possibilities for establishing the cultivation of seed for our own consumption market. It’s my view that, if I have a particular variety and this is sold on every street corner, it’s often only the price that matters. If you have your own variety, you can offer a complete package and you can stand out better from the other competitors in the market. A Caithness variety we’re very hopeful about is the Divaa. Last year, we exported quite a few of that variety to Spain. In this country, the variety ‘At Willem Dijk we know that when vegetables are cheap, potatoes also sell well. That’s important information’, Anton Riezebos emphasises. Potato World 2016 • number 4 7 Pagina 6
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