Fobek B.V.

Fobek b.v. was founded in 1951 by a large group of Northern growers, traders and breeders. In 1953, the Fobek started breeding new better potato varieties for the affiliated traders and growers.
The Fobek is now a joint venture of its customers / clients that carries out potato breeding programs on assignment.
The Fobek is currently running breeding programs for; Agroplant Holland, Bejo, Tuberosum Technologies (Canada), Myco (Denmark) and van Rijn (France).
In addition to the four biggest customers and KIZ, each major shareholder with 300 shares, there are a handful of smaller shareholders from history, each with one or a few shares.

This is how the Fobek works

Fobek develops new varieties for its clients. Every client has his own breeding program within the Fobek, where in close consultation, exactly those varieties are created, that the customer in question needs. These programs are coordinated in close consultation. The planned crossings, seeds and selections from these programs become the property of the relevant customer. The Fobek runs a separate supportive program for the TPS development of Bejo.

These programs are fed by the genitor development program in which interesting resistance genes and other properties are upgraded to be used as a crossing parent in the customer programs. For this purpose, molecular markers are also being developed in collaboration with Bejo to be used in the breeding programs.

The member breeders, affiliated with Fobek receive clones from the Fobek and select them for 3 years. Then everything comes back together and Fobek takes over the testing and selection. For this, test fields are being laid out in the Netherlands, Europe, and North Africa. From field generation 6, the seedlings are also planted by the customers on their own trial / introduction fields. Varieties from these programs are registered in the name of the Fobek, the affiliated breeder and the relevant customer. This customer obtains the exclusive representation of the developed varieties.

Potato breeding

The breeding of new potato varieties is a continuous process of crossing, testing and selecting. The seed obtained after a cross is grown into a plant in the greenhouse and a tuber is harvested from it. The potato is further propagated vegetative from tuber to tuber. Through 6 annual steps of propagation and testing, only the best candidate varieties remain. These are transferred to the customer who will then investigate the commercial possibilities and take care of obtaining plant breeders’ rights and market access.

Varieties of Fobek

Fobek has over the years created, together with their associated breeders, many varieties for her different clients. The greatest successes were the varieties Accent, Ajiba, Aminca and Timate. The Fobek varieties currently in multiplication are:

Variety	Breeder	Commercial exploitation
Red Sun	Schat	Argoplant
Miss Blush	van Loon	Tuberosum Technologies / Frisian Potatoes / TPC
Miss Mignonne	Siderius	Tuberosum Technologies / Frisian Potatoes
Obama	Tigchelaar	Gebroeders Stam
Festo	Rispens	Gebroeders Stam
Armin	Zwart	Argoplant
Persiphone	Fobek	Tuberosum Technologies
Frisian Gold	Heidemans	Tuberosum Technologies
Hind	Fobek	Argoplant
Bernice	Darwinkel	Agroplant
Bleuet	v/d Schaaf	Tuberosum Technologies / Frisian Potatoes
Nemo	Fobek	Tuberosum Technologies / Selectiebedrijf Kooi
Roslin	Heidemans	Argoplant

Working at Fobek

The daily work is done by a small and efficient team of 3 persons, with additional help of loose labor in the season.