Potato Grower/Supplier of the Year

Recognising the outstanding potato grower or supplier of 2015.

The contenders are:

Arundel Kerr Produce (AKP)

Arundel Kerr Produce, or AKP as it is known throughout the potato industry, was founded in 1999 by Richard Arundel and Bruce Kerr and has now grown into one of the UK’s leading potato growing and marketing businesses.

With a dedicated grower group, AKP fully understand the crop at their disposal and can therefore match this to the needs of customers and in turn their consumers.

Growing in excess of 650 hectares itself, AKP works closely with a network of growers across the UK and overseas, handling in excess of 120,000t of potatoes on an annual basis. This ensures that AKP are able to offer their customer base a wide range of varieties on a consistent basis throughout the year.

AKP support their growers throughout the growing cycle, from variety and seed selection onwards. AKP take great care to ensure that potatoes are planted only when the conditions are suitable.

The AKP agronomy team are on hand to assist growers at a time when preparation and planning are paramount and remain so throughout the growing season, to support growers in producing the best possible crops for their intended markets.

AKP provide state-of-the-art grading facilities and over 250,000 sq ft of environmentally friendly cold storage capacity at their Elsham Wold facility in North Lincolnshire, ensuring potatoes are handled most effectively for both commercial and qualitative benefit.

As a result of this end-to-end service, AKP are proud to serve all sectors of the potato industry - retail, foodservice and food manufacturing, both here in the UK and overseas.

Managing director Richard Arundel commented: “AKP has invested in people, systems and resources to develop a vertically integrated supply chain that ensures we provide an industry-leading offer to both our growers and our customers alike.”

Farmcare

Committed to its ‘First Mile’ strategy, Farmcare has complete control over its potato growing: from planting to picking, ensuring consistent quality and total confidence for customers.

Providing the benchmark in quality, both the Goole Estate in Yorkshire and Coldham Estate in Cambridgeshire benefit from Grade 1 silky soil and state-of-the-art irrigation, meaning the perfect conditions for growing excellent-quality potatoes, which include good skin finishes, which are bright and cut free.

All this is achieved while complying with Farmcare’s rigorous disease control programme, placing added focus on the variation of rotation patterns, to ensure a healthy crop that isn’t dependant on chemicals, with Farmcare, unlike most other potato suppliers, being largely PCM free.

Investment in Farmcare’s potato crops include two reservoirs, which have been built as part of a six-year investment plan, as well two packhouses entirely dedicated to potatoes – both fully audited by respected third parties such as Red Tractor, Sedex and Farm Assurance – grading and quality control are second to none.

Farmcare is also committed to remaining at the forefront of the agricultural industry.With a firm focus on product development and innovation, 2015 will see Farmcare implementing a full R&D program headed up by their senior potato agronomist, including technological advancements in growing and storage. The new product development teams will also be working hard to develop new varieties that will continue to excite and inspire the market.

Greenvale

Greenvale have their own grower base but also work with an extensive number of UK potato growers.

We pick the richest soils to grow our potatoes, chosen by our agronomists and growers. There is a huge amount of science behind potato growing and we launched a new arm of the Greenvale business called Produce Solutions in July to focus on improving growing and agronomy.

Decisions on growing locations and varieties are made in conjunction with our customers and can be made up to 12 months in advance, so it’s crucial our procurement team secure exactly what our customers want.

We don’t want to waste any potatoes so any outgrades are taken to our processing plant, where they are cooked and prepared for other potato uses. It doesn’t stop there because the starch and skins of the potatoes are now being converted into cattle feed.

A snapshot of our work:

- Insight – We have used our insight to work with our customers to launch innovative new products and find the right range for the right retailer

- People – We believe it’s our people who are the drivers behind the success of the business. We have launched both graduate and apprenticeship schemes and have mentors around the sites. The company supports all of the sites with charitable events and community involvement

- Site – We are constantly evolving our skills and investing in new machinery and technology. One of our own team members was involved in devising a water recycling plant that now saves 75% of our water usage and we have LED lighting and a new wind turbine

- Research – We work with the best agricultural institutes develop the best potato varieties

- Environment – We set environmental targets and after smashing our Green 15 targets we are about to launch Green 20

LF Papworth

LF Papworth grow a wide range of products including cereals and oilseeds, sugar beet, dwarf French beans and peas, carrots, beef and lamb, and 500 acres of potatoes with 11 varieties.

After some difficult potato seasons and to maintain profitability, LF Papworth decided to concentrate on the high-value salad potato market and now grows and stores all year round, starting lifting in July just as the crop finishes out of store.

This is why the business now grows for three major packers who supply all the main retailers with Leaf Marque and Red Tractor quality-assured products that are supplied countrywide as well as being exported. Getting the quality right has been overcome by developing a grading system on the self-propelled harvester and lifting straight into storage boxes to minimise bruising.

To produce a consistent high-quality salad potato requires lots of attention to detail in every area of production from planting to packing, and the business has invested in the latest irrigation technology using energy-efficient pumps with mobile phone start-ups which is applied accurately through Bauer machines with Briggs booms to prevent wastage of the resource along with advice from Cambridge University.

The irrigation licence has been changed from a surface water abstraction to ground water to help protect the local SSSI which has been done with the Environment Agency in a difficult time of abstraction reform. The company’s potato portfolio covers all areas of supply including Crisping, Chipping, Processing and Packing with long-term contracts from some major processors and packers including McCains, Branston, QV Foods, Kettle Chips and Albert Bartlett. The business has a reputation of producing a high-quality end product that is suitable for storage which is in demand by all processors and packers for UK retail and export.

Nene Potatoes

Nene Potatoes has been marketing potatoes for over 35 years, concentrating on looking after growers and customers in equal measure and providing a low-cost, efficient and hassle-free dedicated potato marketing service.

Chairman David Hoyles commented: “Nene is one of the few remaining farmer-controlled businesses that were set up purely to market potatoes on behalf of its members. We represent 27 dedicated members from Shropshire to Norfolk who grow 4,800 acres of potatoes, handling in excess of 120,000 tonnes each year, and we want to make it an enjoyable experience for all”

These members are committed to selling all of their potatoes through Nene. This means working closely with members in the planning of the potato crop from seed purchase, crop development, daily harvest assessments and storage surveys through to final delivery to customers. This provides the team with an intimate knowledge of the crop and enables the best product match to customers’ requirements and optimise the grower’s return.

The commitment and transparency allows Nene’s small but dedicated marketing team to know the crops they are selling and share this with the customers through open dialogue, field and store visits, and a CD photo catalogue of over 200 crop samples. Security of supply, traceability records and ethical trading standards are all givens. The customers benefit from this large pool of potatoes to meet supply, variety and consumer needs from one phone call.

Nene Potatoes MD Paul Shepherd added: “We recognise that we are in a rapidly changing industry: our aim is to keep ahead of that change and strive to be the best.”