Whenever you spot a cowboy hat sticking out above the field, you know you’re looking at our Product Manager, Piet. Happiest with his boots in the dirt, Piet examines whether the varieties our breeders develop perform well under local conditions – and if they are a good fit for our customers.

Piet explains, “I work with Sales and Breeding to determine the product range that’s the best fit for our customers. As Sales investigates the market needs, and Breeding develops the best genetic hybrids based on those needs, the Product Management team trials the varieties on a large scale in different regions to see how they perform under different circumstances.”

If you can get Piet off the field long enough to ask him about his priorities, he’ll tell you the most important thing is that our varieties add value to everyone in the food supply chain. That’s not an easy task, but Piet can appreciate a challenge.

As he puts it: “What varieties we choose to make commercially available depends on the added value of a particular type of crop. That may be in terms of cultivation, but also in terms of the needs of packers, shippers, and consumers. Let me give you an example. Nice, straight, and healthy beans will make a grower happy. But if we also ensure those beans have an excellent shelf life, we can fulfill the needs of packers, retailers, and consumers as well. In short, we always look at the total package to ensure everyone loves our varieties.”

At Pop Vriend, our strategy is to involve our customers at an early stage in the development of our varieties. We can do that because we focus on a limited number of crops. It’s one of the things about Pop that makes Piet’s eyes light up. “At Pop, each specialist works on one or two crops – no more – with the utmost dedication. That means we have extremely in-depth specialist knowledge and very efficient communication. I’m right where the action is, and that’s a pretty awesome way to work. We literally have our boots on the ground, so we can adapt almost instantly.”