TRADE AND MARKET I NG Italy: ideal testing ground for Dutch potato breeding agent, it’s also mainly early crops and delivery ex land. Potato growers in the south of Italy haven’t had a lot of success recently Last year, some of them didn’t have enough financial resources to harvest everything properly and this year there are problems with paying for the seed potatoes. In addition to this, many crops are late due to the high rainfall in the winter. Planting in the region normally starts in mid-February but, this season, the start was a month later for most of them. This also means a later harvest at lower prices, because the early harvests in the rest of Italy and the world are continuing as usual. Most of these are simply import, because the packagers here don’t ‘have a problem with that. Business is business. Packager Antonio Covone (with cap) is pleased with the recent renewal of the varieties for regional cultivation, but it’s not really fast enough for him. ‘We need varieties that are better able to cope with the cold at the beginning of the growing season.’ agers emphasise, because some Italian growers are good at making a mountain out of a molehill. Poland and the Czech Republic as new export markets On a boggy headland at one of the trial fields, Roberto Ravier, the agent for HZPC Holland and Stet Holland, gives an explanation about the working area in San Vitaliano. Inspecting the breeding results is out of the question, because the ridges are soaking wet. So the visit is limited to a review of the cultivation and market situation. The Netherlands has been active in Italy for decades and has built up a very good reputation here when it comes to the supply of seed potatoes and the introduction of new varieties, Ravier explains. In recent years, the country has needed about 60,000 tons of seed potatoes and 58 percent of this volume comes from HZPC and Stet Holland together. This is partly due to a long-standing relationship that dates back to the time before the merger between Hettema and ZPC. About 12,000 to 13,000 tons of the total is needed for sales in the region around Naples. Unfortunately, this is half as much as it was 20 years ago, due to a sharp reduction in the cultivation area. And this is again a result of the decreased export to Germany, a country that now grows many good-quality table potatoes, and has additional imports from countries like France and partly also Israel and Egypt. In recent years, the export from Italy has improved somewhat and new markets have been created, including Poland and the Czech Republic, according to Ravier. This improved export is largely due to the arrival of varieties such as Colomba. At 5,000 tons, Colomba is the most popular variety supplied, but also older varieties such as Monalisa Family businesses in powerful position In order to be able to show a large range of potatoes and varieties, the Dutch group of breeders had been invited to the local packaging station of the Italian family company Covone in Marigliano, to which HZPC and Stet Holland supply their seed potatoes. Here co-owner Antonio Covone leads the tour. If you had to find the business without an address you’d have a problem, because name and advertising boards are not normal in Italy. It’s also unnecessary, because many family businesses here are in powerful positions. Trade here is a matter of long-term relationships between friends and family and each market party has a more or less defined position. For example, the Covone family ‘What has been noticeable in the countries around the Mediterranean Sea in recent years, and also in Italy, is that the intensity of the rainfall is increasing and temperatures are rising.’ Spunta and Désirée are still popular here. As in Bari on the west coast, the farms around Naples are small and the average area is between 2 and 3 hectares. Here on the west coast, according to the has been firmly anchored in this region for three generations. Covone explains that the trade and packaging business has been active since 1929 in the domestic import as well as export of potatoes 30 Potato World 2018 • number 3 Pagina 33

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