March 18, 2025 | Articles

The Red Carpet

Rolling out the red carpet is more than just a gesture, it’s a celebration of achievements and a promise to look to what’s yet to come. In the potato sector, as in life, moments of reflection and connection are essential to building a sustainable future. This thought was brought to life at the 2024 Potato…

March 18, 2025 | Articles

Potato Variety Days 2024 Spotlights on varieties with fewer growing days

Breeding new potato varieties with fewer growing days is increasingly in the spotlight due to the many advantages for both cultivation and marketing. However, a short growing season isn’t always synony­mous with an early variety; it’s also about the capacity of a variety to bulk up early. In addition, every market has its own definition of…

December 17, 2024 | Articles

Global challenges

The first ever International Potato Day took place on 30 May this year. During the meetings held worldwide, a clear picture unfolded, showing that both emerging economies and Western countries are facing major challenges.

December 17, 2024 | Articles

‘New varieties essential to maintain a place in the modern potato market’

It’s been a hundred years since the predecessors of the Agroplant family business started their trading company. Today, in 2024, the fifth generation is at the helm of the company with Bram (50), Jan (49) en Joris (47) van der Lee. ‘What has been of paramount importance for a century already is that our company…

December 17, 2024 | Articles

First International Potato Day connects

On May 30 this year, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) celebrated the first edition of the International Potato Day, with the theme ‘Harvesting diversity, feeding hope’. The initiative was not only celebrated at the FAO headquarters in Rome, but received widespread attention on all continents. ‘The potato is the most important life-saving…

December 17, 2024 | Articles

World Potato Congress aims to connect the old and new world

From 23 to 26 June this year, the World Potato Congress (WPC) took place in the Australian town of Adelaide. Over a thousand delegates from over 40 countries had travelled to this country to learn from the various speakers, but certainly also from each other. The central theme of the international potato conference was: ’Old…

December 17, 2024 | Articles

Solynta presents itself as a global TPS seed supplier

As a breeder of hybrid potato varieties, Solynta presents itself today as a global seed supplier of true potato seed (TPS). Especially as Kenya has now granted permission for three varieties from the Dutch company to be sold commercially. In addition, Solynta has entered into a partnership with Bayer to distribute TPS in Kenya and…

December 17, 2024 | Articles

New online platform for potato auction launched

Service2Potato is a new international online trading platform for auctioning potatoes that was launched at the recently-held Potato Demonstration Day trade fair in the Dutch village of Westmaas. ‘It aims to make the market fully transparent. By giving supply and demand free rein, a fair price is created for both buyers and sellers’, the initiators…

October 16, 2024 | Articles

Pay for all services?!

I had the pleasure of travelling to the United States in the first week of this new year, as the annual meeting of American agriculture and trade organisations took place in Las Vegas, also known as the world’s top gambling city. The event – a conference and trade show – was held in great style.…

October 16, 2024 | Articles

Digitalisation of the Dutch General Inspection Service for Agricultural Seed and Seed Potatoes (NAK) requires choices from the sector

Organisational digitalisation is steadily rising in the world. The Dutch inspection sector, too, cannot avoid it. The NAK Inspection Service is doing rather well, according to an interview with Eric Casteleijn, Jan Eggo Hommes and Ad Toussaint. They show that, with digitalisation, virtually anything is possible technically, but not all growers have taken the first…