Last Friday, potato cooperative Agrico celebrated the official opening of its new quality centre, which was built behind their head office at industrial zone De Munt in Emmeloord, the Netherlands, in the past year.
Speech of mayor Harald Bouman
To monitor and increase the quality of their potatoes, Agrico built a quality centre. In this centre, inspections are efficiently conducted to give the cooperative a lot more insight into the internal and external quality and vitality of its potatoes. This information helps Agrico to decide the right destination for each batch, and helps guarantee quality for suppliers. Besides, Agrico uses the information to optimise production and storage.
Speech of Agrico’s manager Jan van Hoogen
Monitoring the quality takes place using, among other machinery, a custom-built machine line of RMA-Techniek. Besides, the quality centre has special climate chambers that provide information regarding the quality of shelf life over longer times and in differing circumstances. All relevant research data is recorded by using the latest technologies coupled with the company’s information and management systems.
The quality centre was taken into use at the beginning of the new season last August. Up to now, experiences have been positive. The centre meets the expectations of the cooperative, its growers and suppliers. General manager Jan van Hoogen: “The Agrico Quality Center has now been operational for more than six months. We’ve processed more than 10,000 individual samples. The investment in this quality centre has brought our organisation firmly into the future regarding innovation and digitisation. With a centrally located quality centre that uses the latest technology to monitor everything, we’re truly frontrunners in our sector. The data we record here provides us with grips we can use to lift our organisation even higher. This way, we’ve made another considerable move in the direction of the desired growth and professionalisation of Agrico.”
First action
The official first action of Agrico Quality Center was conducted by mayor Harald Bouman in the morning, when he put the taring machine into action by unloading a batch of potatoes under the watchful eyes of a select group of people. During his speech, the mayor complimented Agrico and its members on the energy and entrepreneurship needed to realise this as cooperative. In the afternoon, an open house was held for Agrico members and other invited guests. Interested parties could also take a look around the refurbished main office.
Growers in the climate chamber
Opening Agrico Quality Center from Agrico on Vimeo.
For more information:
Agrico
www.agrico.nl