Potato Review

www.potatoreview.com POTATO REVIEW MAY/JUNE 2021 39 PEOPLE FOCUS I T’S been changes galore for the Poortvliet family, who farm at Bannington Hall Farm, Aylsham, over the past year. Whilst a young Jack Poortvliet has been making waves playing rugby for Leicester Tigers, having made his senior debut for the club at the start of 2019/20 season, his father’s family have been extending their business opportunities by opening up a new potato store. The family previously had to transport their crops several miles by road to a rented store at Dudwick, Norfolk which was a time- consuming round trip, but have now built a new store which adjoins some of the fields where they grow potatoes. They grow around 150 acres alongside a range of other arable crops on a 900-acre owned farm, to which they add other land held on contracts. One third of their crops go for chip making with the other two thirds going into the pre- pack trade. Their new store is a PosiStor from Crop Systems Limited, and is fitted with the company’s SmartStor controller, and one of the first to feature a glycol fridge. It has opened up new business opportunities for them, says Bruce Poortvliet. It’s all ‘go’ for the Poortvliet family As one family member takes the rugby world by storm, those on the farm take on the challenge of building a new store during lockdown. “Five years ago, when we started growing potatoes, we lifted them and sold them straight off the field. Then we started renting storage at Dudwick which was expensive. Getting to and from the store was increasingly time consuming.” Having reached the decision to build their own store, the family had the added challenge of doing this under Covid-19 restrictions. However, Bruce said the development progressed smoothly and the store has just been loaded for its first winter. “We loaded the store over eight days and then immediately started to pull the temperature down. The crop went from 9oC to 3oC in just three days. Our agronomist was amazed – he had never seen store temperatures pulled down that quickly.” The family was confident that the glycol fridge would perform, as they used to have a mobile glycol cooling kit on the farm several years ago: “That old unit worked pretty well when we needed, so we were confident this new fridge would work. It has the added advantage that we can turn it off and use ambient air from outside the store if the temperature outside drops below our storage temperature, which will save costs,” he said, adding: “It is very handy to have the system on your mobile phone – that gives us real ‘peace of mind’ because if anything goes wrong we all get an alert and can respond and rectify it very quickly.” A new grader and small-scale bagging line have also been installed. The grader will ensure the crop is fit for both storage and eventual sale to packers. It will also be used prior to bagging potatoes into retail and commercial packs for sale direct to local pubs, restaurants and shops. The project secured a grant of £65,903 from the Eastern Agri-Tech Growth Initiative, towards total projects costs of £263,613. The Norfolk farm invested £263,000 in the new hi- tech storage building. “We loaded the store over eight days and then immediately started to pull the temperature down. The crop went from 9 o C to 3 o C in just three days.” “Five years ago, when we started growing potatoes, we lifted them and sold them straight off the field.