Farmers are like banks, says Sander Kok
Everybody knows we don’t manage our own price. That, as far as I know, only applies to farming. When we go to the supermarket, we have to pay at the checkout before we leave. If we sell our brown onions, the onions are already far away before we get our money.
We are just like a small bank. We pre-finance buyers for a year and a half, and perhaps like a bank, we should get some interest in return. If we sell our products in a supply and demand market, we are not even sure about the price. That’s really strange, isn’t it?
We are a grower, a seller, a bank and in the end we still have to wait for our money. I’m curious how the supermarkets whould react if we said: “Thanks for the bread, if we are satisfied with it we will pay within two weeks. No way would we get out of the supermarket without being stopped by security.
It’s not only the price that gives satisfaction, it’s nice to sell high-quality crops as well. This month I shifted some brown onions at a price higher than the current value, as this was fixed back in September. I have confidence the quality will be fine.
However, in Holland we are hearing about the adverse weather and subsequent condition of products in England, with a lot of crops still in the field unharvested. The result is that a lot of potatoes are being exported from Holland to England at high prices. For those UK growers that have crops still in the ground, I wish you all a lot of success.
Sander Kok manages 100ha of arable land near Rutten, the Netherlands, along with his father and uncle. Seed potatoes is the main crop, together with brown onions, chicory, sugar beet and wheat
