“This is my 30th season at Agrico, but I have never experienced something like this.” That is how Jan van Hoogen opened the annual varieties and seedlings presentation at the Agrico Research’s breeding and research station in the Netherlands last week. The Managing Director of Agrico was referring to the driest summer and autumn since 1976.
“This is having a major impact on the potato market this season. Yields will be much lower in many European countries and the quantity of seed potatoes available for export will also be considerably less”, he warned the visitors.
The variety show in Bant provided more firsts. Here Agrico presented the company’s ‘next generation potatoes’ – a series of varieties that are unique in their kind, thanks to their natural resistance to the main potato disease, Phytophthora. Agrico presented a series of complementary spotlight varieties with excellent consumption qualities. These are suitable for conventional and organic cultivation.
This year three new Agrico varieties where included on the Dutch Variety List. All three newcomers belong to the ‘next generation’ varieties:
- Ardeche; a relatively early, Phytophthora resistant (in foliage and tuber) starch variety with resistance to potato cyst nematodes and wart disease. Also suitable for flakes.
- Nofy; a Phytophthora resistant (in foliage and tuber) starch variety with a good starch yield per hectare.
- Twister; a quite early table potato for organic and conventional cultivation with a good yield and Phytophthora resistant in foliage and tuber.
