The story of FarmCoaching
Its potatoes go around the world as fries. From Hong Kong to Spain and from Saudi Arabia to Singapore. Grower Philip Kroes of Dronten-based FarmCoaching regularly gets enthusiastic reactions from people eating his fries. 'Last time, someone from Hong Kong appalled me by saying he liked the fries so much. Yes, that does make you proud.'
Dronter potatoes go global as fries
The American fast food chain is one of Philips' clients. 'Founded by a couple who had been saving money for the children's studies, but they turned out not to be such study buffs. So they started a restaurant in 1983. The concept is that everything has to be fresh, and certainly for those days that was very progressive,' says the grower.
In every Five Guys branch, there are signs stating that the fries are made from potatoes from Dronten. They come from Philip's fields or from one of the other 14 growers in Eastern Flevoland and the Noordoostpolder, which he now works with. The days when he could manage on his own are long gone. The potatoes are exported to countries such as France, Spain, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Dubai, Kuwait, Qatar, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
Seabed is perfect
Several potato varieties grow in the vast, fertile and young polder. From the firm-boiling Agria, the floury Irene to the french fry potato Innovator. Philip's fields are full of Innovators. 'These are quite resistant to the vagaries of the European climate,' he explains.
The former Zuiderzee is the walhalla for frying potatoes. The seabed is packed with calcium, which only benefits the quality and shelf life. 'We always deliver to England between May and July, because we can store our potatoes better. Flevoland not only offers space to do business, you hardly ever have any crop failures here because the fields don't drown or dry up.'
Americans in Flevoland
In the early years, Philip received many Americans to visit. They wanted to see for themselves where their fries came from. Laughing: 'I promoted Flevoland quite a lot. Then I explained that we live here on the seabed. Those faces! Or we drove along the dike. They thought it was very strange to see those fields so close to the water then.'
The enthusiastic potato grower traditionally ran an arable farm on the old sea clay near Rotterdam, but it had to make way for nature. He settled in Eastern Flevoland 18 years ago. A conscious choice. 'The virginity of only 40 years of farming appealed to me. The drainage here is super, as is the parcellation and you can irrigate here.' He lost his heart to the new land.
He immediately felt welcome. 'That also fits with Flevoland's history: after the reclamation, people from all corners of the world came to the new land. Starting from scratch. So did we. I don't regret that for a second.'
Potatoes from Dronten all over the world
American fast-food chain Five Guys opened its first restaurant in 1986. After a crop failure in England, hassles with licensing rights of the Innovator potato variety and many wanderings, the American company ended up in Dronten in 2013. From then on, things moved fast. Its potatoes now go all over the world. And so does the Flevoland grower. For instance, he attended the opening of Five Guys by sheikhs in Dubai and Saudi Arabia. Five Guys has branches worldwide, including one in Almere.
