The

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-contro ...

Royal Avebe U.A. (abbreviation of ''Aardappelmeel Verkoop Bureau'') is an international Dutch starch manufacturer located in the north of the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and produces starch products based on

potato starch Potato starch is starch extracted from potatoes. The cells of the root tubers of the potato plant contain leucoplasts (starch grains). To extract the starch, the potatoes are crushed, and the starch grains are released from the destroyed cells. T ...

and potato protein for use in food, animal feed, paper, construction, textiles and adhesives. About 2240 farmers are members of Avebe. The cooperation is divided into six districts (two in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and four in the Netherlands). Avebe starch factories in the Netherlands, Germany and Sweden processes about 3 million tons in

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...

es.

History

The history of Avebe is strongly connected with the history of the Dutch province Groningen, the many privately owned starch manufacturers in the area and the former starch company KSH (Royal Scholten-Honig) founded by

Willem Albert Scholten Willem Albert Scholten (6 October 1819 – 1 May 1895) was a Dutch industrialist and landowner. He established the potato starch factory Eureka in Foxhol which laid the foundation of an industrial empire. Scholten would own 24 factories in Europe. ...

in 1841, the first Dutch multinational. The name Avebe is derived from the Dutch words ''Aardappelmeel Verkoop Bureau'' (Potato Flour Sales Office) (AVB). The cooperative was founded in 1919 as a cooperative partnership between different potato starch manufacturers located in Groningen owned by potato farmers to ensure good market prices for their native starch. The farmer cooperatives successfully pushed the privately owned starch companies away from native starch into the production of starch derivatives. In 1948, the cooperation evolved into one company and was renamed as Avebe. In 1956, the first derivatives were produced. In 1978, after the bankruptcy of KSH, further integration of the potato starch industry in Groningen was finalized as Avebe took over a large part of the Scholten company. KSH was the last privately owned potato starch company in the

. Today, Avebe is now the largest producer of potato starch and potato starch derivatives worldwide.

Recent developments

After further expanding the potato starch business in the 1980s and 90s, in Germany and also expanding to other starch sources such as

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

and

tapioca Tapioca (; ) is a starch extracted from the storage roots of the cassava plant (''Manihot esculenta,'' also known as manioc), a species native to the North and Northeast regions of Brazil, but whose use is now spread throughout South America ...

, the Avebe farmers cooperative has reorganized its activities and since 2006, again specialises in the potato crop. Since 2005, Avebe produces a GMO-free

amylopectin Amylopectin is a water-insoluble polysaccharide and highly branched polymer of α-glucose units found in plants. It is one of the two components of starch, the other being amylose. Plants store starch within specialized organelles called amyloplas ...

waxy potato starch Waxy potato starch is a variety of commercially available starch composed almost entirely of amylopectin molecules, extracted from new potato varieties. Standard starch extracted from traditional potato varieties contains both amylose and amylopect ...

(Eliane) and is investing in a new refining technique to produce native potato

protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, res ...

(Solanic) for food applications. In 2021, Royal Avebe announced that it would be collaborating with Solynta, a Dutch agritech company, on developing hybrid breeding for starch potato varieties.{{Cite web, url=https://www.potatopro.com/nl/news/2021/royal-avebe-en-solynta-gaan-samen-zetmeelaardappelrassen-hybride-veredelen, title=Royal Avebe en Solynta gaan samen zetmeelaardappelrassen hybride veredelen, date=April 16, 2021, website=PotatoPro, access-date=2022-10-05

References

External links

* D. Strijker, Globalization of a potato starch co-operative: the case of AVEBE. In: P.H. Pellenbarg and E. Wever (eds)., International business geography. Routledge, London and New York, 2008, pp. 169–185

* Dorien Knaap, Summary of dissertation, The W.A. Scholtencompany: the first Dutch industrial multinational, University of Groningen, 200

Food and drink companies of the Netherlands Cooperatives in the Netherlands Starch companies Food and drink companies established in 1919 1919 establishments in the Netherlands Veendam Companies based in Groningen (province)