Edition: 03-2023

A merger with major consequences

At a time when the table potato market has been shrinking for years, potato growers and packagers are exploring innovative strategies to achieve better prices and sales.

‘Big, simple and efficient’, that’s how STET distinguishes itself in the market after 50 years

‘Big, simple and efficient’, in short, that’s how STET distinguishes itself after 50 years in the international seed potato market according to current Managing Director Peter Ton. He’s been involved with the company for 35 years now. Ton learned the trade from founder Joop Stet, who always said, ‘We’re not a sales organisation, we’re a…

Potato as a solution for saline areas?

Salinisation is playing a defining role in more and more places around the world. About 1 billion hectares of land have already become saline, putting pressure on the food security of some 1.5 billion people. Salinisation therefore causes problems in many places, but the salt concentrations in the soil are often not yet too serious…

HZPC UK strengthens local position with acquisition of TLC Potatoes

HZPC UK, which is part of the Royal HZPC Group, takes over the Scottish mini tuber producer TLC Potatoes. With the acquisition, the company ensures the continuity and reliability of the seed potato supplies in the United Kingdom. This has become even more important after Brexit, because exporting seed potatoes to Great Britain is difficult.

Flying frying in microgravity

‘The food we eat determines how we feel, and nothing beats a good fry-up, although in moderation of course. As we prepare for missions to the Moon and on to Mars, astronauts will be happy to hear from researchers that one staple comfort food is not out of reach, even in space: fries’, shares the…

British Potato returns to Harrogate in November

With preparations for the new year in motion, British Potato (BP) will return on 22^nd and 23^rd November 2023 at the Yorkshire event centre in Harrogate.

Planning is essential in the booming baby table potato market

In a free market, it is important to keep the supply smaller than the demand in order to be able to ensure a good price for a product. This certainly applies to the booming baby table potato market. By offering the Paris baby potato variety exclusively in its growing areas, providing growers with the right…

Predictability of breeding further improved

Homozygous parents in potato breeding give a predictable result in the offspring. To get parents with the same alleles on the chromosome pairs, various techniques are available. The Leiden-based company Fytagoras recently discovered how they can make diploid parent lines homozygous in one generation. This technique, called doubled haploid technology, can mean a major step…

Usefulness of straw as a weapon against virus Y

Plant health during variety propagation is top priority of clonal seed potato selector Leo Terwisscha van Scheltinga from Emmeloord. After hearing and seeing the results of the applica­tion of straw in regard to aphid reduction, he doesn’t doubt for a moment about its usefulness and gets to work. All second and third year strains are now…

Agrico, Nedato and Leo de Kock join forces in a new table potato cooperative

With the joining of forces by Agrico, Nedato and Leo de Kock, a new independent cooperative in the field of table potatoes came into being. With 200 specialised growers who, together grow 3,200 hectares of table potatoes and realise an annual turnover of 160,000 tons, the new cooperative, named PotatoNext will focus entirely on the…