Agrico Continues to Grow in Potato Acreage and Varieties
Cooperative Agrico is still expanding both its variety portfolio and seed potato acreage. At the Variety and Seedling Show’s recent opening, general director Mark Zuidhof made this statement. Three new Agrico potato varieties were added to the National Varieties List in 2024 alone.
The focus of this year’s Varieties and Seedling Show was Agrico’s Next Generation cultivars. Several potato cultivars with heightened resistance to Phytophthora infestans are referred to here. Due to their improved resistance to this significant potato disease, these cultivars can use far fewer crop protection agents, which helps to promote sustainable potato farming. These environmentally friendly types are becoming more and more valuable. For upcoming generations, Agrico’s Next Generation cultivars open the door to sustainable arable farming.
This year, Sidney, Leonore, and Janick—three new Agrico varieties—were added to the Dutch Variety List. Agrico Research director Peter Oldenkamp customarily gave the producers of these novel varieties a bronze statuette at the Variety and Seedling Show. The Danish AKV Langholt’s Henrik Pedersen bred the Janick variety, which is sold all over the world under the Agrico brand Semagri. Agrico Research was responsible for breeding the other two new kinds, Leonore and Sidney.
The cooperative is also making a strong appearance at the Varieties and Seedling Show this year with its Agrico BioSelect and Semagri trademarks. While BioSelect varieties have been displayed at the variety show for a while, Semagri made its debut as an Agrico brand. The cooperative will introduce the BioSelect and Semagri brands under their own corporate identity as of this year.
New Growers
Agrico gained 1,250 more acres last year when ZAP and TPC were acquired. The area managers have also been quite engaged in the acquisition process. Last year, more than 100 additional growers joined the Agrico cooperative as a result of this. In season 2024, both factors have contributed to a significant increase in acreage.
Currently, Agrico is also further expanding cultivation outside the Netherlands.
“In countries where we have subsidiaries, such as Agrico UK in the United Kingdom and Desmazières in France, we see substantial growth opportunities in both cultivation and sales,” Zuidhof said.
In addition, Agrico has started growing seed potatoes in Germany and Denmark.
“These are new areas for us where we see a lot of potential to grow further in acreage,” he added.
Agrico sees further growth in demand for seed potatoes.
“Growth in industrial varieties for French fries, potato chips, and starch, but we also notice increasing demand in export and retail varieties. Especially in export and retail, we notice more and more interest in our varieties with Phytophthora resistance,” Zuidhof also declared.
Agrico Research is working daily to improve Agrico’s portfolio of varieties. To maintain the lead that Agrico has in terms of its strong portfolio of varieties, the cooperative decided last year to build new laboratories at Agrico Research.
“At around EUR15m, it will be the largest investment in Agrico’s history,” Zuidhof concluded.
