The Producers' Organization for Consumer Potatoes (POC) has introduced a 'contract tool' for its members. In this overview potato growers can quickly see what the prices of potato processors are and who pays the highest and lowest price.
POC has entered the contract prices for the main crop of ware potatoes from five potato workers in an Excel file. The varieties Fontane, Innovator, Agria, Marquis and Lady Anna are broken down. The five companies (Aviko, Agristo, Farm Frites, Lamb Weston Meijer and McCain) provided this price information themselves. "Not every party was equally enthusiastic to participate", says the organisation.
Quality premiums unraveled
Because every factory has its own quality premium system, it was almost impossible to make a good comparison, according to the organization. The Contract Tool should provide more transparency in the market, also in terms of quality. POC has chosen to work with five categories from bad to excellent. A distinction is made between basic bonuses and extra quality bonuses.
POC notes that no potato processor has followed its advice to increase the contract price by €50 per tonne. According to the organization, the minimum increase is required to cover the additional costs and to allow the grower a margin. Especially when you consider that the decrease last season was on average €10 per tonne.
Who pays the best?
Aviko and Agristo are the best paying processors for the Fontane variety in POC's Contract Tool. The lowest contract prices are offered by LWM and Farm Frites. For the Innovator variety, LWM and Agristo came out on top. The differences between the highest and lowest contract price vary per delivery period. In the ex-country segment (for Fontane) they usually amount to €5 per tonne. During the storage period, this increases to €10 per tonne. Simply put: there is a cent difference between the highest and lowest price.
The Contract Tool only makes POC available to its members. One of the organization's objectives is to make the market transparent. The board's ambition is to have at least 2024% of the acreage of ware potatoes in the Netherlands connected by the end of 70. Member recruitment is therefore the top priority, it indicates.