Wednesday, March 18th
I visited with Mr. Jeroen Bakker at the HZPC Research & Development Facility in Metslawier. This is their potato breeding facility. It is a vey impressive facility, fairly large scale. Before giving a tour he further explained the companies sector driven approach and focus for developing new varieities. Jeroen is responsible for the sector breeding retail fresh. We had a good discussion about the future of potatoes to feed our growing world population. Potatoes are the 3rd largest crop world wide following rice and wheat. Potatoes provide more nutrients / unit of water. Potatoes use 2 times less water than wheat and 3 times less water than rice. World wide, over half of the potatoes are destined for the fresh market and only 13% for processing. HZPC has many established varieities around the world. Jeroen explained the relative importance of genetics and the environment with a variety and for example its taste. He reviewed the process HZPC follows for breeding from many crosses in year one to probably only 1% remaining by year 3 and then many years until a variety is proven and goes to market. They have at least 45 variety trials world wide to evaluate new selections. Jeroen provided a tour of the facility. It was very impressive. In particular I was impressed with the technology employed in evaluating selections to ensure objective measurements.
After visiting HZPC I travelled to Emmeloord to visit NAK. NAK is the Dutch General Inspection Services. It is 100% funded by producer user fees. NAK's primary function is to provide field and warehouse inspection services for seed potato production and they also provide all of the laboratory testing services (ie virus, pcn, other nematodes, bacteria). They also perform some field trials, training services and services for cereals and grasses on germination, purity, moisture and health.
I first visited with Mr. Henk van de Haar at NAK. He provided a good overview of the organization and the services they provide. I was impressed that it operates fully on user fees. The average inpection costs for a seed producer including all testing costs are 350 euros / ha or $191 cdn / acre.
He discussed the efforts of the EU to develop a standard seed classification for all of the member countries. It is progressing but it may be a few years before it is fully implemented.
It was interesting that NAK also plays a role in regulations. For example if a seed grower does not comply with the rotation rules NAK will not allow the seed to be certified.
After an excellent visit with Henk, I was intrododuced to the Laboratory Manager, Miriam Kooman. She provided a brief overview of the laboratory services then she took me on a tour. I was very impressed with the volume of samples that go through the facility. I believe she said 700 PCN samples / day and 500 virus samples / day. It was like PEI's PQI Lab on steroids. They had multiplications of some very specialized equipment, robotics and other types of advanced equipment to process many samples in a very short amount of time.
Unfortunatley with potatoes there will always be plant health issues, as such inspection services and testing facilities like NAK will be essential for the future success of the potato industry.
Thursday, March 19th
I visited with Agrico's head office in Emmeloord. I was given an overview of the company from Ruurd Lindenbergh and then a tour of their research and development facility.
Ruurd Lindenbergh, an export manager at Agrico provided me with a good overview of the organization. For complete details on Agrico you can visit www.agrico.nl Over 40 years ago, potato growers came together to form this single, new cooperative Agrico. Since that time it has grown into an organization that markets potatoes worldwide, breeds new varieities and devises innovative solutions.
I was impressed with the fact that Agrico is a cooperative and their track record for bringing new varieties to the market place world wide. I was also impressed with the organizations vision for continuous development of new varieites to meet the needs of the market.
Late afternoon I made a visit to see Harry Goos of Tolsma. I was pleased that he was able to take the time to tell me more about Tolsma and his persepctive on the future of the seed & potato business. Tolsma specializes in potato storage technology ( www.tolsma.nl ). Harry took me on a tour of their operation that included manufacturing facilities, parts inventory, research and development, training, service, customer support, etc. I was very surprised at the scale of the operation and all the people and equipment that are involved in producing a quality storage management product. I also did not realize that they also manufacture sorting equipment. It was very obvious that there is a significant amount of depth and expertise behind this company and their products. Harry also took me to a farm and showed me their equipment and what it can do.
Overall I was very impressed with Tolsma`s product and expertise. I also appreciated Harry`s perspective on the future of the business. Quality storage managerment practices and equipment & continuos improvement of this area will be key to future success.
I visited with Mr. Jeroen Bakker at the HZPC Research & Development Facility in Metslawier. This is their potato breeding facility. It is a vey impressive facility, fairly large scale. Before giving a tour he further explained the companies sector driven approach and focus for developing new varieities. Jeroen is responsible for the sector breeding retail fresh. We had a good discussion about the future of potatoes to feed our growing world population. Potatoes are the 3rd largest crop world wide following rice and wheat. Potatoes provide more nutrients / unit of water. Potatoes use 2 times less water than wheat and 3 times less water than rice. World wide, over half of the potatoes are destined for the fresh market and only 13% for processing. HZPC has many established varieities around the world. Jeroen explained the relative importance of genetics and the environment with a variety and for example its taste. He reviewed the process HZPC follows for breeding from many crosses in year one to probably only 1% remaining by year 3 and then many years until a variety is proven and goes to market. They have at least 45 variety trials world wide to evaluate new selections. Jeroen provided a tour of the facility. It was very impressive. In particular I was impressed with the technology employed in evaluating selections to ensure objective measurements.
After visiting HZPC I travelled to Emmeloord to visit NAK. NAK is the Dutch General Inspection Services. It is 100% funded by producer user fees. NAK's primary function is to provide field and warehouse inspection services for seed potato production and they also provide all of the laboratory testing services (ie virus, pcn, other nematodes, bacteria). They also perform some field trials, training services and services for cereals and grasses on germination, purity, moisture and health.
I first visited with Mr. Henk van de Haar at NAK. He provided a good overview of the organization and the services they provide. I was impressed that it operates fully on user fees. The average inpection costs for a seed producer including all testing costs are 350 euros / ha or $191 cdn / acre.
He discussed the efforts of the EU to develop a standard seed classification for all of the member countries. It is progressing but it may be a few years before it is fully implemented.
It was interesting that NAK also plays a role in regulations. For example if a seed grower does not comply with the rotation rules NAK will not allow the seed to be certified.
After an excellent visit with Henk, I was intrododuced to the Laboratory Manager, Miriam Kooman. She provided a brief overview of the laboratory services then she took me on a tour. I was very impressed with the volume of samples that go through the facility. I believe she said 700 PCN samples / day and 500 virus samples / day. It was like PEI's PQI Lab on steroids. They had multiplications of some very specialized equipment, robotics and other types of advanced equipment to process many samples in a very short amount of time.
Unfortunatley with potatoes there will always be plant health issues, as such inspection services and testing facilities like NAK will be essential for the future success of the potato industry.
Thursday, March 19th
I visited with Agrico's head office in Emmeloord. I was given an overview of the company from Ruurd Lindenbergh and then a tour of their research and development facility.
Ruurd Lindenbergh, an export manager at Agrico provided me with a good overview of the organization. For complete details on Agrico you can visit www.agrico.nl Over 40 years ago, potato growers came together to form this single, new cooperative Agrico. Since that time it has grown into an organization that markets potatoes worldwide, breeds new varieities and devises innovative solutions.
I was impressed with the fact that Agrico is a cooperative and their track record for bringing new varieties to the market place world wide. I was also impressed with the organizations vision for continuous development of new varieites to meet the needs of the market.
Late afternoon I made a visit to see Harry Goos of Tolsma. I was pleased that he was able to take the time to tell me more about Tolsma and his persepctive on the future of the seed & potato business. Tolsma specializes in potato storage technology ( www.tolsma.nl ). Harry took me on a tour of their operation that included manufacturing facilities, parts inventory, research and development, training, service, customer support, etc. I was very surprised at the scale of the operation and all the people and equipment that are involved in producing a quality storage management product. I also did not realize that they also manufacture sorting equipment. It was very obvious that there is a significant amount of depth and expertise behind this company and their products. Harry also took me to a farm and showed me their equipment and what it can do.
Overall I was very impressed with Tolsma`s product and expertise. I also appreciated Harry`s perspective on the future of the business. Quality storage managerment practices and equipment & continuos improvement of this area will be key to future success.