REMA Environmental Machinery BV in the Netherlands is a company that’s been developing and producing a series of mechanical haulm removal machines (EnviMaxX) for several years. Piet Regnerus, President and owner of REMA sent us a series of photos and a video showing his machine at work on a 1,000 ha potato operation in the Tabuk region of Saudi Arabia, where potatoes are produced for the french fry industry as well as table potato market. Tabuk, also spelled Tabouk, is the capital city of the Tabuk Region in northwestern Saudi Arabia. It has a population of 534,893 (2010 census). It is close to the Jordan–Saudi Arabia border.
Piet tells us that the total farm is 35,000 hectares in size. Potato rotation is 1:3 with two growing seasons per year (harvesting is done in July and December). Soil type is sandy, sandy loam and sand/loam/clayish (this is where the potatoes are produced). There’s clay because of an ancient river bed of millions of years ago. Organic matter in the soil is zero: all nutrients are given via pivot irrigation.
According to Piet, there are about 40,000 pivots in Saudi Arabia. No wonder that water is a highly valued commodity there…
Below then is a video and also a series of photos showing the potato operation in Saudi Arabia and an EnviMaxX machine at work. Piet Regnerus can be reached at info@remamachines.com. Any of our readers are welcome to send along pictures and movies related to potatoes and we will get it published on our Photo and Video Gallery!
