Retail and sector sign a pact for better organic potatoes

Retail, seed potato growers and packers have agreed to only have robust, phytophthora-resistant varieties in their organic range by 2020. Such a covenant is unique for the agricultural sector.

Organic potatoes are still a tricky business. The grower opts for a cultivable variety, but the buyer often indicates that he cannot do anything with it. The culprit is Phytophthora, for which there are no good natural pesticides and which caused considerable damage to the harvest in 2016. Retail, breeders and packers are tackling this challenge together.

Organic range
On Thursday, PotatoEurope, Aldi Nederland, Bionext and Schaap Holland signed the covenant 'Accelerated transition to robust potato varieties'. In this agreement, the parties agree to only have robust varieties that are resistant to phytophthora in their organic range by 2020. 

Aldi wants better organic potato
Aldi wants to increase its share of sustainably grown products. Dirk Willem Blijleven, buying manager: "Even within the already sustainably grown organic products, improvements are always possible. I see the use of robust, resistant varieties in our organic potato range as a significant improvement."

Additional growers
Schaap Holland expects the covenant to accelerate the transition to robust, resistant varieties. "Our mission is to fulfill all our customers' potato wishes, preferably organized within sustainable potato chains," said André Adamse, director of retail and food service. "That is why we will do everything we can to implement the objectives of the agreement at and with Aldi." Incidentally, Schaap Holland indicates that it can use additional growers for this.

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Photo (left to right): Adri van Nieuwenhyzen (grower and manager of Bionext), Dirk Willem Blijleven (Aldi), André Adamse (Schaap Holland) and Jacob Eising (Den Hartigh)

Nedato, Agrico, HZPC, C. Meijer BV, Plantera BV, Den Hartigh, Europlant, Danespo, Caithness Potatoes BV and Plantum have already signed the agreement. Lidl has now also joined, as have Ekoplaza/Udea, Albert Heijn and others. Jumbo Supermarkets. Superunie, the purchasing organization that represents 13 independent supermarket organizations in the Netherlands, will follow shortly.

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