TRADE AND MARKET I NG Robust is the new trend Theo Meulendijks, Schaap Holland, Biddinghuizen: ‘Extra attention for varieties that need fewer chemicals against pests and diseases’ ‘We’ve been looking for some time now for varieties in which environmental and fertilisation aspects play a role in the background. In the bio-covenant, the term robustness is mainly focused on plant protection. From my position as the person responsible for the choice of varieties, I’ll certainly pay extra attention to this in the coming years by asking our breeders for varieties that need less chemicals against pests and diseases. Most of the focus is on Phytophthora, which won’t surprise anyone in the sector. Some varieties with good resistance that can be used in practice are already available, partly thanks to an initiative such as Bioimpuls. And not only for the table potato segment, but also for industrial processing. A good example of the fruits that we’re looking for is the Seville by breeder Niek Vos from Kraggenburg. This is a dual-purpose variety, usable as a table potato, but also suitable for cutting chips. It can be called robust thanks to the build-up of two Phytophthora-resistant genes. We aim to introduce this variety in both the organic and conventional sectors. So far, that’s the explanation of robustness within the scope of the covenant. If you ask what we’ve found to be a robust variety, then that’s still the Maritiema. We were a long way ahead with it in terms of environmental sustainability years ago. The variety has good AM resistance (Ro1, Pa2, ed.) and is reasonably immune to tuber Phytophthora. The Maritiema is going to last for many years. Not only because of the characteristics mentioned, but also because of its reliable yields, and its cooking and baking qualities. The latter refers to the other meaning of the word sustainable: it’ll last a long time. Also not unimportant in our industry’, Meulendijks laughs. Gerard de Geus, Royal ZAP (Semagri), Ewijcksluis: ‘Varieties that can stand a knock or two’ ‘When we talk about robust varieties, we are often talking about varieties that can stand a knock or two. These are often the varieties of which our growers have the most hectares in the various segments. An important division at Royal ZAP is the export of seed potatoes and I’m thinking first of all of the Spunta. For us it’s the big example of a robust variety. This has to do with the stable high yield factor under extreme growing conditions. A comparable variety from new breeding work must be better or at least as good. You’d think, better is better, but for our more distant customers “just as good” is already good enough. This is because they increasingly want to excel with a variety of their own in their home market. I’m talking mainly about our customers in North Africa and the Middle East. If Royal ZAP wants suitable varieties for these places, we’ll have to find them with other growers, because they’re not in the range we’ve taken over from Semagri. Those are mainly still starch and table potatoes. If you want to apply that word robust to our starch varieties, then, as far as I’m concerned, the Stratos and Saprodi come into the picture. For many starch potato growers, a broad resistance to nematodes and also wart disease is currently preferable to yield. The yields of these varieties are already very good, but when it comes to potato cyst nematode and wart disease resistance, they’re among the best. With robust varieties like these you can continue as a starch grower for years and years, especially if you still have to deal with the mandatory cultivation of wart disease-resistant varieties. For these reasons, we already had 120 hectares of Saprodi seed potatoes last year and in the coming year we’ll have between 200 and 220 hectares.’ Potato World 2018 • number 1 27 Pagina 26

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