Food group Cosun has found an alternative destination for some of the surplus potatoes at its subsidiary Aviko. These potatoes are processed into pet food.
Dirk de Lugt, chairman of the Cosun cooperative, writes this in a letter to members with an update on developments within the company due to the corona crisis. Aviko has a surplus of potatoes because the demand for fries has largely disappeared as a result of the corona crisis. Due to the closure of the catering industry, Aviko now misses an important sales market. As a result, factories are even temporarily closed, reports De Lugt.
Aviko can now sell some of the surplus potatoes to its own Cosun family at Duynie. This company normally processes residual products from food production into animal feed, such as beer brush. While potato chips are normally Duynie's raw material for animal feed, the company will now process complete batches of potatoes in its new factory in Cuijk, Brabant.
Steaming into pig food
There the potatoes are processed and dried, after which they are suitable as pet food. Potatoes are also steamed, after which they can be sold as pig feed. This is also a solution for Duynie, because De Lugt previously wrote that the company is also suffering from the corona crisis. Because many suppliers have scaled down production, such as the chip industry and beer manufacturers, production is under pressure.
A total of 1 million tons of surplus potatoes hang over the Dutch potato market due to the huge drop in demand. The potato sector is in consultation with the Ministry of Agriculture for a compensation scheme for affected potato growers. Agriculture Minister Carola Schouten is expected to announce the scheme in the course of next week.