Seed Potato Grower of the Year
Congratulations to Louis Claassen Family Trust for winning the prestigious Bayer Seed Grower of the year award, awarded at the Seed Potato Growers’ Forum on 17 September 2019.
Finalists of 2019:
2019 Bayer Moerkweker van die Jaar finaliste
’n Mens word telkens diep geraak deur die passie, nederigheid, hardwerkendheid, trots en positiwiteit van moerkwekers wat finaliste van die gesogte Bayer Moerkweker van die Jaar-toekenning is. Die besoeke aan die finaliste bevestig telkens dat dit net in die woordeboek is wat sukses voor werk staan. Alles word volgens die boek, en die Skema, gedoen om ’n kwaliteit produk te verseker. Dit is dan ook presies wat Bayer doen. Hulle gee erkenning aan uitmuntendheid deur hierdie toekenning.
In al die besoeke wat gebring is, was dit baie duidelik dat al die rolspelers in die bedryf mekaar nodig het en nie een sonder die ander kan funksioneer nie. Elke skakel in hierdie ketting voeg waarde toe tot die eindproduk, en in hierdie geval aartappelmoere, wat sonder die sertifiseringsetiket, net aartappels is. Die rol wat sertifisering in die ketting speel is van onskatbare waarde. Die voortdurende ontwikkeling van die Skema en praktiese uitvoering daarvan, maak dat Suid-Afrika internasionaal ’n gerekende rolspeler is en nasionaal gehelp het om die opbrengs te verhoog tot waar dit vandag op gemiddeld 47 plus ton per hektaar staan.
Top 10 Seed Potato Growers – 2019 – Top 10 Moerkwekers
The mission of Potato Certification Service (PCS) is to render an industry-related service which supports the South African potato industry to perform optimally by ensuring the availability of high-quality planting material.
However, the main role players in ensuring the availability of high-quality planting material are the seed potato growers themselves. PCS inspects, samples and certifies the seed potato plantings and seed lots presented, to verify and certify that the seed potatoes indeed qualify as good quality planting material.
It is therefore a pleasure to recognize excellence, by announcing the Top 10 Seed Potato Growers for 2019. In the three year term, which was used for listing the growers according to certification inspections and results, 68 growers planted an average of 30 hectares per year for three consecutive years, thereby qualifying for the Bayer Seed Grower of the Year award.
The growers who are amongst the Top 10 this year registered an average of 335 hectares annually, with the smallest grower registering 49 hectares on average.
Top Seed Grower, leading the industry to new heights
The Bayer Top Seed Potato Grower of the Year has everyone waiting in anticipation as we approach the build-up to the final announcement at the South African Seed Potato Growers’ Forum on 17 September 2019. This highly sought-after award will be presented at the Southern Sun Cape Sun Hotel in Cape Town during an elegant gala dinner hosted by Bayer.
Winners of the past 14 years of outstanding merit have received this prestigious award by means of a nomination process in the early 90s. The criteria for the award have progressed to a sterner approach from 2010 where all records were used to calculate the deserving Seed Potato Grower of the Year.
This year the criteria to determine the Seed Potato Grower of the Year were scrutinized and refined to a greater extent ensuring that the most-deserving Seed Potato Grower is a worthy ambassador and role model.
Potato Certification Service (PCS) collaborated with IT developers specializing in custom software, to develop a program ensuring that results could easily be verified and that the process to determine the Seed Potato Grower of the Year is objective and can be audited.