Quality
“We reap what we sow.”
This old proverb still applies in agriculture – and especially when it comes to the production of seed potatoes. This is because healthy, high-quality planting material is essential for successful cultivation, good yields and healthy soils. As plant breeders and farmers, we always have this in mind, and we are thus committed to doing everything in our power to produce high-performance varieties and high-quality seed material.
Quality in the production of seed potatoes
From the plantlets to mini-tubers to pre-basic material, we produce mainly at our own breeding stations and on our own farms – under controlled conditions, with high standards of hygiene and continuous phytosanitary checks.
Our farms are located in excellent, healthy areas in northern Europe with low pest and disease pressure and, like our breeding stations, they are certified: all of our breeding stations and seed-growing farms comply with the requirements and standards laid down by both QS and Global GAP – the German and international quality assurance systems for foodstuffs.
Quality in agriculture
Healthy, vital soils are essential for healthy, high-performance planting material. That's why we use a broad, varied crop rotation of at least six years for seed potatoes in our breeding stations and farms, leading to optimal soil hygiene and healthy pre-basic seed material. It is also why we have raised the proportion of set-aside areas and. The farms producing seed potatoes for us under contract also apply broad crop rotations and high quality standards in order to maintain healthy soils.
Our farm managers are in regular contact with our breeding and research teams and thus both teams benefit from the transfer of knowledge.
Quality assurance
We carry out our own checks in the course of breeding and production and throughout our distribution network.
At our breeding stations and on our seed-growing farms, we take all sorts of measures to guarantee high standards. These include:
- Hygiene management
- Risk analyses
- Residue tests
- Continuous end-to-end documentation of the production process
- In-house inspections carried out by our farm managers and quality control managers[A1]
- Additional tests for pathogens
- Additional ELISA tests (to detect potato viruses)
- Intensive selection of the seed crops
- Trained personnel
