Buying Agria potatoes for your business

If you cut your own chips, you want to choose your potato. Buying Agria potatoes is then best done straight from the grower: you know where they come from and get the same quality every week. Friet van Beus supplies washed Agria potatoes by the sack or on pallets to snack bars, chip shops and other catering businesses that cut chips in their own kitchen. Below you can read what to expect, how to store the potatoes and why grading matters.

1. Why Agria, if you cut your own

Agria is one of the best-known chipping potatoes. The variety produces large, oblong tubers with yellow flesh and plenty of dry matter. That means long chips, few breakages and chips that turn fluffy inside and crisp outside. Because Agria is low in sugar, the chips colour a lovely golden yellow rather than browning quickly.

At Friet van Beus, Agria is the main variety. It is grown on the family's own farm in Zeewolde and supplied from September to July. Only in August, for a few weeks, does the family switch to Frieslander; for that period see buying Frieslander potatoes. More about the variety itself can be found on Agria potatoes.

2. Washed, graded and by the sack or pallet

The Agria chipping potatoes are carefully washed and graded on the farm every week. Carefully, because damaged skin shortens their shelf life. After washing, the potatoes go into sacks, which you can take by the sack or on pallets, depending on how much you process and how much space you have. That makes buying by the sack just as possible for a small business as buying by the pallet is for a busy chip shop.

As well as washed potatoes you can also order scraped potatoes. Scraped saves work in your kitchen, while washed gives you the freedom to make skin-on chips, for example. What buying scraped saves you is explained under peeled potatoes for catering. Cutting your own saves costs compared with ready-cut chips, and you keep the cut entirely in your own hands.

3. Grading: why size matters

For chips you want large, even tubers. A large potato gives long chips with few offcuts; small and irregular tubers give short pieces and more waste. Even grading also keeps your chip cutter running smoothly and makes all the chips the same thickness, so a basket of chips cooks and colours evenly.

That is why the potatoes are graded on the farm before they go into the sack. You do not have to sort out which tubers are suitable yourself. If you do not yet have a good cutter, read buying a chip cutter first.

4. Storage at your premises

A well washed and graded Agria keeps for a long time, provided you store it properly. Keep the sacks in the dark, because light turns potatoes green. Keep them cool but frost-free, and do not put them in the cold room: below 6°C a potato converts starch into sugar, so the chips brown too quickly and more acrylamide forms. Stand the sacks on a pallet or rack rather than directly on the floor, and allow some air circulation.

Check your stock regularly and remove soft or rotten tubers straight away. Work in order of arrival and order a little more often rather than building up a large stock in one go. Detailed advice can be found under storing potatoes.

Would you like to order Agria potatoes for your business? Call or message Thijs on 06 23972300, or send us a request. For questions about growing and varieties you can also contact Joost on 06 23055742. Friet van Beus supplies business customers only.

Frequently asked questions