2009: Bad year for potatoes, good year for sorting equipment manufacturer BEST

During the International Potato Processing and Storage Convention (IPPSC), recently held in Edinburgh, Scotland the Belgian Electronic Sorting Technology (BEST), manufacturer of electronic sorting equipment, looked back at the European potato harvest of 2009 and its effects on their business. Steve Raskin, BEST's area sales manager looking after the sorting needs of the European potato processing industry elaborated on the topic in his presentation at IPPSC:

Everyone involved in the potato industry will surely remember the summer of 2009. It was a long, hot and very dry summer, not at all an ideal climate for the quality of potatoes. This has been confirmed by certain parties, but also denied in some cases. We, at BEST, do not want to interfere in the discussion. We just want to ventilate the reactions we are getting from our industry contacts.

December, we have seen smart companies investing quite heavily in either new machines, or important upgrades to their existing sorting equipment. They wanted to be prepared for the battle against possible loss of quality in March, April and May in Europe.

Customers that have invested in either new cameras, different positioning of the cameras, smarter electronics or high capacity valves, are now able to produce a very good end product for their customers.

"We did not only convince a lot of our existing customers, but we are proud to also announce that different other important European companies have discovered the advantages of choosing BEST. They are now fully taking advantage of their strategic decision and are able to serve their customers with high quality potato products."

Also outside of Europe, we can now announce that two important French fries and potato chips manufacturers have decided to invest in new sorters from BEST. All the solutions we are installing are tailor made to the specific needs and expectations of our customers.

Not only our color cameras are proving perfect results in the detection of grey discolorations or black spot bruising, but also the laser technology has a lot of added value through the detection of foreign material and other specific potato processing issues.

BEST is focused on the potato industry for years now and will continue to do so. Therefore BEST is constantly investing in new technologies. We listen very carefully to the needs of the industry and try to develop as fast as possible, to comply with the high expectations.