Year of foundation: 1973
Head office: Emmeloord, Netherlands
Branch Offices: Agents and exclusive wholesalers are present in around 90 countries around the world
Subsidiary companies: Leo de Kock (Netherlands), Desmazières (France), Agrico UK (Scotland), Agrico Nordic (Sweden), Agrico Polska (Poland), Agrico East Africa (Kenya), Parkland Seed potatoes (Canada), Interseme (Slovenia), Potato Seed Africa, (Kenya) Agrico India (India), AR Tarim (Turkey)
Number of employees: 270
Activity: development of potato varieties and cultivation and marketing of seed and ware potatoes (conventional and organic)
Website: http://agrico.nl
About the company:
Agrico B.V. is one of the top 3 potato breeding companies worldwide. This powerful cooperative, which was founded in 1973 as a merger of three regional cooperatives, started out on Dutch soil but its 76 unique potato varieties grow nowadays in more than 80 countries all over the world. During the past decades, Agrico has steadily been growing as a cooperative, reaching more than 1,500 Dutch growers and becoming a leader in the fresh and organic potatoes segments in the Netherlands.
Agrico’s headquarters are in Emmeloord, the world potato city per excellence. Very close to it, in Bant (Noordoostpolder, a municipality in the Dutch province of Flevoland) we can find Agrico Research, a breeding station with 4,000 m2 of greenhouses and accommodation for the development of new potato varieties and intensive research activities. Here, Agrico’s breeders determine cultivation characteristics such as the frying quality of Fries and chips varieties, and the cooking quality of table potatoes. The laboratories also carry out research into disease resistance, using DNA marker technology to examine the desired variety properties.
Many new varieties are tested each year in the 30 hectares of trial fields both locally and abroad. Out of all of them, Agrico markets on average three new varieties every year.
“Our ambition is to work together towards achieving excellent growth in order to meet the increasing global demand for potatoes, both now and in the future.” – Jan van Hoogen, Managing Director
Food security and safety are also key values for Agrico. These go hand in hand with the five pillars of its CRS policy, which are linked to the eight United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, and are translated into the motto “Excellent growth is fair growth for everyone”. Following this, Agrico promotes sustainable cooperation within the entire potato value chain and is also committed to reduce its environmental footprint.