The cultivation of potatoes is of great importance to Dutch agriculture. Nearly a quarter of available arable land is taken up for this purpose.

This comes to a total of 35,000 hectares used for the cultivation of potatoes. A small portion of this, a little less than 30 per cent, is intended for the domestic market. The vast majority, more than 70 per cent, is for export. These exports, totalling more than 700 million kilograms, are bound for over 80 different countries. The total trading value of these exports works out to between 400 and 500 million euros.
Around 250,000 tonnes of seed potatoes are traded to countries outside the EU.
The abundance of destination countries and the diverse tastes and recipes in these countries places a broad range of demands on the potato. In the Netherlands, that has led to a very diverse specialist market, which is constantly developing new varieties to further meet the different demands. As well as the consumers, the cultivators and processors of the potatoes are also placing new, more stringent demands on the potato, for example, their adaptability to the climate of the destination country, and particularly their resistance to diseases in order to reduce the number of necessary crop protection agents. The specialist agriculturalists annually plant 1.5 million seedlings, from which three or four new species per year remain after undergoing a rigorous selection process. Due to the wide range of requirements on the part of producers and consumers, around 250 different varieties of potato exist at this moment, which were created to meet the particular demands of the 80 destination countries.

The seed potato is the basis of cultivation for many thousands of hectares of land in the destination countries. This puts great demands on seed potatoes. In a large number of cases, these standards are set by the quality requirements of the sector itself, which for a long time has been supervised by Nederlandse Algemene Keuringsdienst or NAK (Netherlands Agricultural Testing Department). This regulatory body supervises the land use and the basic materials employed in production. During cultivation, the NAK inspectors make at least three field inspections. During and after the harvest, supplementary inspections of the land and of the potatoes are made. When they are eventually packed, every bag receives an NAK certificate, which signifies that this variety of potato and this particular batch comply with all standards and regulations required of it.

The destination countries also set standards, in addition to the domestically imposed regulations. These are known as export requirements, and they vary according to each particular country. These requirements are mainly related to prevention of the spread of pathogens, known in the trade as Q-organisms. These are pathogens (insects, fungi, bacteria) that are sometimes present in one country, but due to factors such as climate or other crops, cause negligible damage. However, these pathogens may cause mass damage to agriculture or to nature in the destination country.

In earlier times, these latter-named demands were dealt with by a final inspection by the Plant Health Department, shortly before shipment. In their plant-testing programme Plantkeur, the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality has, under strict conditions, transferred this inspection to the regulatory body, in this case the NAK. As the NAK was already supervising cultivation and processing via its inspections, it proved advantageous to add these export inspections to their inspection of the sub-batches at the moment of preparation. 

By July and August, the farmers have done their job. The seed potato harvest is stored away in warehouses with well-regulated climates. At this point, the hectic logistics season will begin for the exporters and the commercial establishments. They must re-allocate the thousands of batches in storage into the correct consignments in compliance with the requirements of the destination countries; sorted by the variety and size of the potatoes, the size of the consignment and the time that the batch must be delivered.

Based on the wishes of the consumer, the exporters and commercial establishments give their suppliers the order to sort their produce and prepare batches for export. This is not a completely predictable process, as machines can break down, sorting of a batch can go wrong, and of course there is always the possibility that a sub-batch does not pass its inspection. If the boat in Harlingen is made to wait, then this can cost a considerable amount of money.

In order to smooth this hectic logistical process, the exporters, together with the NAK and with the support of the programming team CLIENT, have developed the Pootaardappel (Seed Potato) sector application. One of the essential points of the sector application is that it makes as much usage as possible of the data stored in the NAK’s systems regarding batches and batch inspections.

The system’s core process is:
- The exporter gives the general specifications of the consignment, for which he must apply for a plant health certificate.
- The application is filled in with the order details and constituent sub-batches, in accordance with the cultivators’ preparations.
- The details regarding these sub-batches and the inspections that they have undergone are stored in the NAK’s database.
- By means of a ‘web service’ (an intelligent connection between CLIENT Export and the NAK’s system,) the exporter gains insight into which batches are ready for export, and can then copy the batch, along with its inspection results, into his order.
- In the final stage of the application, CLIENT Export checks whether all requirements applicable to the destination country have been met by matching the inspection results of all sub-batches against the various country-specific export demands.

From the perspective of the system, this working method is constituted as follows:

After the client has placed an order, the exporter will request the appropriate sorting methods from the cultivators. The cultivator will then apply for the necessary certificates and approvals from the NAK. The NAK inspector will assess the batches and store the inspection results in his personal digital assistant (PDA). The data in the PDA is then directly entered into the batch information in the central database.

When the cultivator applies for NAK certification, the NAK will combine this investigation with the required export inspections and supplementary checks that are standard to the sorting process.
As soon as the first in a series of inspections is concluded and recorded, the results appear in the central database. The exporter compiles a consignment based on the client’s demands and enters it into CLIENT. He enters the name of the consignee, the product, the country and any miscellaneous information.

The consignment is compiled from the sorted and ready-to-export batches from the cultivators, which are stored in the NAK database. With the aid of the batch selector in CLIENT, a connection is made with the central NAK database. By performing detailed searches, the batch selector displays the specific batches that the cultivators were asked to sort and process. By selecting the weight and clicking on OK, all necessary batches are selected. When all batches of the appropriate weight are selected, then clicking on the ‘add to order’ button will add the batches to the consignment. The consignment is now complete with regard to the input of the necessary data.

Some exporters can fully automate the compilation of consignments by means of the message book. Exporters can compile the consignments in their own records, create a digital order and submit this via an electronic message to CLIENT. Thanks to CLIENT’s intelligent function, all necessary actions can be carried out automatically.

When the consignment is ready, the consignment’s export eligibility can be checked via ‘check certitude’. With the button ‘refresh safeguards’, all necessary requirement checks are carried out for the exportation of seed potatoes to a particular destination. This activates the central motor of CLIENT, that matches standards against conditions. A section of these conditions are established by the NAK inspection results.
For the export of seed potatoes, CLIENT can ensure all necessary guarantees are in place by retrieving the results of the NAK investigations. These requirements are applied at the touch of a button, the relevant inspection results are retrieved from the NAK database and checked for compliance with the particular requirements.

These requirements and the related standards and conditions are monitored in CLIENT by the Plant Health Department. The Plant Health Department enters the export requirements into CLIENT Export, including the relevant conditions that ensure safe export of the produce.

When all results have been received and they comply with the particular country’s export requirements, CLIENT will declare the consignment fit for export. In the event that results are missing, the specific requirement or inspection will be displayed in orange. If inspection results do not comply with requirements, CLIENT will display the export eligibility in red.  Such a batch is unfit for export. The batch must then be removed from the consignment.

Additionally, when a country alters its export requirements or the borders are closed, this can be directly entered into CLIENT so that the exporter monitors the situation and avoids unnecessary costs.

The consignment has now been completely filled in, all inspection results have been received, and the consignment is fit for export. This is the moment at which the exporter can conclude his application.
Any possible missing data will be displayed. Here, the exporter can also choose what batch data needs to be displayed on the certificate.

Some countries require a cultivator number and a lot number. Other countries do not require this, and hence the exporter can deactivate these options in this case. CLIENT adds all matching order information next to each other in one section.

All necessary data is automatically compiled from the database in accordance with the consignment and batches, and are displayed alongside the other data on the print preview screen. For large consignments, a supplement is automatically created upon which the ‘overflow information’ is displayed. Everything is in compliance with international agreements. The exporter can request and view a preview of the certificate, and if everything is in order, he can request the export document.

By clicking on ‘OK’, the exporter concludes the set-up of the consignment. He can now print out the certificate and request a stamp. During the export season, most businesses are visited daily by NAK inspectors for official stamping of the certificates.

The final step in the compilation of the export certificate is official stamping. This is the final check of the total consignment. Via the PDA, the NAK can check CLIENT’s database to definitively ascertain that the consignment meets the country-specific requirements displayed on the certificate. Almost immediately, the inspector will receive notification that the consignment is in order, and that authorises him to stamp and sign the certificate.

With CLIENT Export, the seed potato sector has realised a fully digital operating method regarding quality control. From the field tests to the batch checks, from the export checks to the compilation of the export certificates, all details are digitally available and all duplicated activities are cancelled. This ensures that the process runs far more efficiently.