Monday, March 16th
I travelled from Belgium into the Netherlands Monday morning enroute to Kruiningen area to visit some folks at Lamb Weston. I met up with Lamb Weston's Corporate Agronomy Manager, Steven Luitjens and one of his Field Supervisors, Peter Rijk at a producers modern potato storage with refrigeration. I was very impressed with the producer's facility and approach to long term storage. Of particular interest was his ability to manage sprout suppression via MH in the field combined with an injection system to periodically fog the potatoes with sprout suppressant. I was also interested to see the automated mechanism for measuring shrink. Data is collected remotely. Lamb Weston agronomy have several of these located in producers storages so shrink data can be shared between a producer group for comparison and discussion of best practices for minimizing shrink in long term storages. It is also interesting the ventilation capacity of the storages here are much greater than those typically have in PEI. The folks at Lamb Weston also took me to another producer's farm before joining Lamb Weston's Director of Manufacturing, Director Raw & Supply Chain and one of the company's agronomists. I really appreciated them taking the time to discuss their business in Europe and the markets they serve. They are very optimistic about the future of the processing business in this market. I am impressed by Lamb Weston's approach to dealing with their raw potato suppliers and their commitment to working together with potato producers to have continuous improvement. After lunch I travelled the afternoon with agronomist Sjaak Aben to another producer and a producer / custom service provider. It was nice to see a number of farmers on the land performing tillage operations and planting some crops (onions and cereals). A big thank you to the folks at Lamb Weston for taking the time to show me around and discuss the processing business from their perspective. I then travelled about 3 hours to the town of Joure to spend the night before visiting with HZPC the next morning.
Tuesday, March 17th
I spent the day today with HZPC. HZPC are a world leader in the marketing of seed potatoes for various applications. They have 10 branch offices abroad. They have well over 200 employees, 800 growers, 55 breeders that keep working on the introduction and commercialization of new, specific varieities. Their clients are active in five different sectors: The Traditional sector, the Retail Fresh sector and the processing sectors Peeled, Crisps and French Fries.
I spent the morning at HZPC's corporate headquarters in Joure. . I am grateful for the insight provided by HZPC's Commercial Director, Herman Verveld. I was very impressed with the companies consumer focused approach to variety development that is focused on engaging the entire value chain. They are taking a very market oriented approach. I had an excellent discussion with Herman about the current state of the seed business and his perspective of the key success factors for the future of the business. I appreciate the time that Herman took for my visit.
In the afternoon I went on the road with one of HZPC's Field Manager's Eise Timmerman. He gave me a tour of the company's sample grading facility and quality lab in Emmelord. I was really impressed with the automatic equipment used for grading samples. I was also really impressed with the quality of HZPC's facilities. Eise then took me to a local seed grower. He provided an excellent overview of his seed production practices. Viewed some neat equipment that included an ethylene injection unit for the seed storage, greensprouting mesh bags and tote filling equipment (see pics in photogallery). Appreciated and enjoyed the tour with Eise.
Tomorrow I am heading to HZPC's R&D facility and then to NAK (the seed certification organization for Netherlands).
I travelled from Belgium into the Netherlands Monday morning enroute to Kruiningen area to visit some folks at Lamb Weston. I met up with Lamb Weston's Corporate Agronomy Manager, Steven Luitjens and one of his Field Supervisors, Peter Rijk at a producers modern potato storage with refrigeration. I was very impressed with the producer's facility and approach to long term storage. Of particular interest was his ability to manage sprout suppression via MH in the field combined with an injection system to periodically fog the potatoes with sprout suppressant. I was also interested to see the automated mechanism for measuring shrink. Data is collected remotely. Lamb Weston agronomy have several of these located in producers storages so shrink data can be shared between a producer group for comparison and discussion of best practices for minimizing shrink in long term storages. It is also interesting the ventilation capacity of the storages here are much greater than those typically have in PEI. The folks at Lamb Weston also took me to another producer's farm before joining Lamb Weston's Director of Manufacturing, Director Raw & Supply Chain and one of the company's agronomists. I really appreciated them taking the time to discuss their business in Europe and the markets they serve. They are very optimistic about the future of the processing business in this market. I am impressed by Lamb Weston's approach to dealing with their raw potato suppliers and their commitment to working together with potato producers to have continuous improvement. After lunch I travelled the afternoon with agronomist Sjaak Aben to another producer and a producer / custom service provider. It was nice to see a number of farmers on the land performing tillage operations and planting some crops (onions and cereals). A big thank you to the folks at Lamb Weston for taking the time to show me around and discuss the processing business from their perspective. I then travelled about 3 hours to the town of Joure to spend the night before visiting with HZPC the next morning.
Tuesday, March 17th
I spent the day today with HZPC. HZPC are a world leader in the marketing of seed potatoes for various applications. They have 10 branch offices abroad. They have well over 200 employees, 800 growers, 55 breeders that keep working on the introduction and commercialization of new, specific varieities. Their clients are active in five different sectors: The Traditional sector, the Retail Fresh sector and the processing sectors Peeled, Crisps and French Fries.
I spent the morning at HZPC's corporate headquarters in Joure. . I am grateful for the insight provided by HZPC's Commercial Director, Herman Verveld. I was very impressed with the companies consumer focused approach to variety development that is focused on engaging the entire value chain. They are taking a very market oriented approach. I had an excellent discussion with Herman about the current state of the seed business and his perspective of the key success factors for the future of the business. I appreciate the time that Herman took for my visit.
In the afternoon I went on the road with one of HZPC's Field Manager's Eise Timmerman. He gave me a tour of the company's sample grading facility and quality lab in Emmelord. I was really impressed with the automatic equipment used for grading samples. I was also really impressed with the quality of HZPC's facilities. Eise then took me to a local seed grower. He provided an excellent overview of his seed production practices. Viewed some neat equipment that included an ethylene injection unit for the seed storage, greensprouting mesh bags and tote filling equipment (see pics in photogallery). Appreciated and enjoyed the tour with Eise.
Tomorrow I am heading to HZPC's R&D facility and then to NAK (the seed certification organization for Netherlands).