1 Report of the board

After a season in which nearly every record was broken, the global potato sector came under significant pressure in 2025-2026. Prices for ware potatoes fell to historically low levels across almost all markets, affecting acreage in key potato-growing regions. These developments also had an impact on the seed potato sector.

It was precisely during this challenging season that the strength of the Royal HZPC Group really shone through. Supported by our global teams, strong relationships with customers and growers, a balanced presence across market segments, and a strong portfolio of varieties, we closed the year with positive results. The season also reinforced the importance of continuing to invest in the future. Seeing the strategic choices made over recent years deliver value, particularly in difficult market conditions, strengthens our confidence in the long term.

An important factor is the relationship with customers and growers. Our teams across Europe stay close to the market and work in close partnership with our network of growers. In key seed potato-producing countries such as the Netherlands, France, Germany, Poland, the United Kingdom and Finland, our teams further strengthened their market positions. Exports to Southern Europe, Africa and Asia played an essential role in this success.

Outside of Europe, we have a strong presence in key potato markets through compact local teams. The volume of seed potatoes continued to grow there, particularly through licensed cultivation in the United States and India.

The strength of our variety portfolio played an important role in this performance. Colomba continues to expand its global presence as the leading table potato variety. Innovator and Santana remain essential varieties for the French fry industry, while VR-808 and SHC-1010 continue to gain ground in the potato chip segment. It was encouraging to see that our newer varieties are also strengthening this growth momentum. Strong examples include the French fry varieties Quintera, Travolta and Castor, the potato chip variety Norman, table potato varieties such as Libra and Brianna, and traditional market varieties including Rashida and Tyson.

Over the past decades, we have made deliberate and substantial investments in research and breeding. From the outset, we set ambitious goals. The result is a portfolio of varieties with stronger disease resistance, improved nitrogen efficiency and greater resilience under dry growing conditions.

These advances align closely with evolving market expectations and the challenges growers face every day. Climate change, shortages of production inputs, and changing laws and regulations call for increasingly resilient varieties. At the same time, issues such as PFAS and ongoing discussions around Natura 2000 zoning are creating additional uncertainty across the sector. In this regard, Royal HZPC Group stands unconditionally shoulder to shoulder with our growers and customers.

Across the world, pressure on the use of crop protection products continues to increase, while fertilisers are becoming more expensive or less readily available. At the same time, demand for responsibly produced food is rising, driven by a growing global population.

Our investments in research are delivering results through varieties that achieve strong performance with fewer inputs. We are also advancing Integrated Crop Management (ICM), combining agronomic expertise with crop support measures to help future-proof seed potato production.

In doing so, we support not only our own growers, but potato farmers around the world. High quality seed potatoes are the foundation of a successful potato crop. The expertise and quality of the Dutch seed potato sector enable growers in Africa, the Middle East, Southern Europe and many other regions to achieve good yields and contribute to local food security.

Even in a challenging market, we continue to invest in the future. In February 2026, we completed the acquisition of IPM Potato Group, strengthening our position in several key markets. Within Royal HZPC Group, both HZPC and STET have continued to thrive. With IPM Potato Group, we have added a third brand and organisation, creating new opportunities to accelerate our growth and expand our global impact.

As a result of exceptionally challenging market conditions, IPM’s contribution this year fell short of expectations. This does not change our conviction that IPM will be a valuable addition to the group over the long term.

Alongside IPM, we continued to invest heavily in the implementation of NetSuite, our new ERP system. This transformation requires significant commitment across the organisation. Thanks to the dedication of our colleagues, the system is now operational in Germany, Poland and at STET Holland. With this milestone achieved, we are well positioned to take the next steps at HZPC Holland, HZPC France and HZPC UK.

Finally, important progress was made in the areas of hybrid breeding and minituber production. Both are important building blocks for the future of the seed potato sector and Royal HZPC Group.

The strength of Royal HZPC Group lies in the combination of leading market positions, a broad portfolio of varieties, a global presence supported by local teams with deep market knowledge, and the long-term investments we continue to make in research and breeding. A challenging year like this highlights just how important that foundation is. Together with our employees, growers, customers and partners, we will continue to build a strong and future-ready potato sector that contributes to feeding a growing world population in a responsible way.

This report deals specifically with the activities of the HZPC Association. The HZPC Association owns 100% of the shares in the company, making it the sole shareholder of Royal HZPC Group B.V.

The HZPC Association has issued all the shares in the form of certificates to natural persons and legal entities that comply with specific requirements. On behalf of its members, the Board of the HZPC Association carries out the duties of shareholder at the General Meeting of Shareholders of Royal HZPC Group. All of the activities of Royal HZPC Group B.V. focus on the potato product. HZPC carries out research, breeds varieties and grows seed potatoes, ware potatoes and mini-tubers.

In addition, Royal HZPC Group B.V. is working on other business models which could offer support to the sales of HZPC’s seed potatoes internationally.

As a result of the international growth of Royal HZPC Group B.V., the issues are no longer focused entirely on the interests of Dutch growers. The Board of the HZPC Association aims to represent the interests of all members both nationally and internationally. Members here include (former) growers, (former) breeders and (former) staff members. The autonomy and continuation of the HZPC organisation are therefore a guiding principle for the Board.

November 2025 and May 2026 were the periods when ongoing trading could take place in HZPC certificates for two weeks, on the Captin trading platform. As a result, the price was set on a daily basis. It was also possible for all certificate holders to see what was being traded and the various price movements. On the HZPC certificate exchange, liquidity is often relatively limited. This year, a total of more than 23,000 certificates were traded in November 2025 and May 2026. This is about 3% of the total outstanding certificates. In November 2025, the new weighted average certificate price was set at EUR 109.59 and by May 2026, it had decreased to EUR 89.83. We look back on a successful series of trading days.

The Board of the HZPC Association closely monitors the HZPC certificate trade to ensure that trading runs properly. However, the price is set entirely on the basis of supply and demand and in the maximum bandwidth within which the share certificates can move. Orders and trades are processed and taken care of by Captin.

This year, the HZPC Association Board decided to take a different approach to the Connecting Growers Programme in view of HZPC's results for the 2025-2026 season, in which HZPC did not meet one of its bank covenants. The agreements with the banks stipulate that if not all bank covenants are met, it is not permitted to distribute any financial benefits to certificate holders. This means that neither the Connecting Growers Programme allocation nor the dividend may be distributed. At the request of the HZPC Association, HZPC purchased certificates for EUR 1.5 million in November 2025 and May 2026. As these certificates may not be distributed to growers, they will remain on the balance sheet of Royal HZPC Group B.V.. HZPC has purchased a total of more than 14,500 certificates for the Connecting Growers Programme for EUR 1.5 million over the past two trading periods.

The Connecting Growers Programme has been successfully rolled out to growers in six European countries: the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Poland, Germany and Finland. The aim of the Connecting Growers Programme is to ensure that the majority of certificates remain in the hands of growers who grow for entities of Royal HZPC Group B.V. The HZPC Association, the Supervisory Board and the executive team believe it is important that the HZPC Association and the company continue to be ‘for and of’ active growers. The Board of the HZPC Association hopes to continue this Connecting Growers Programme in the coming years, but this will partly depend on growers' appreciation of the Connecting Growers Programme in relation to the cost of EUR 1.5 million. 

On behalf of the Board,
Egbert de Vries

Royal HZPC Group B.V. has a net result of EUR 2.3 million. For the 2025-2026 season, there is no impact on the results related to the Connecting Growers Programme, as the certificates associated with the programme will not be issued. Consequently, the net result does not need to be adjusted for the costs of the Connecting Growers Programme.

The same applies to the dividend. No dividend will be distributed for the 2025-2026 season, as explained in the previous section, due to the fact that one of the bank covenants was not met.

The return on equity of Royal HZPC Group B.V. was 3.7%.

Over the past year, in addition to focusing on market developments, the board also actively monitored the Aurora programme. The Board was informed that the implementation at HZPC Germany, HZPC Poland and STET Holland had progressed so successfully that customers, growers and other stakeholders experienced only limited disruption from the introduction of the new computer system. Therefore, the board would like to thank and congratulate the staff in these countries, the Aurora Team and everyone who has worked on it for this considerable milestone. This successful implementation was also an important factor in the Board's decision to approve the follow-up investments in Aurora. The next milestone for Aurora is the implementation at HZPC Holland and HZPC France in 2026.

Royal HZPC Group B.V. invests in Research & Development. This is a fixed item on the agenda in discussions between the Supervisory Board, the Executive Board and the board of HZPC Association. This concerns questions such as: What should Royal HZPC Group do in this area? How much money are we investing in it? In which areas can we cooperate?

Developments in plant breeding come about quickly. In the past, HZPC has invested a great deal in techniques which accelerate breeding and make the process more effective. This approach seems to be bearing fruit. Varieties that are being introduced now, and will be in the coming years, represent a significant improvement over varieties of the past through the use of new technologies. In the past year, great results have also been achieved in the hybrid potato breeding programme. Hybrid potato varieties allow botanical potato seed to be produced and distributed. These developments are expected to be a genuine ‘game changer’ in the longer term for potato production across the world. This requires regular, disciplined scrutiny of this development by management. The Supervisory Board provides advice and takes a critical look at whether we are on the right course. The Board of the HZPC Association maintains an appropriate distance.

The risks for HZPC Association are limited. Ensuring that the trade in share certificates for Royal HZPC Group B.V. runs smoothly is an important activity. The responsibility for and execution of this has been in the hands of Captin since May 2022. This is a professional party and means the risks associated with this trade are mitigated. Regulations have forced the board to go back to the grower again if the identification is not complete. Captin will approach the certificate holder for this purpose. The Board of the HZPC Association will continue to closely monitor the process and take additional actions when necessary.

There was one General Meeting of Shareholders/Certificate holders in 2025. At this meeting, the new CFO introduced herself and afterwards she presented the Annual Report of the financial year 2024-2025. 

Mr. R.P. Smith, Mr. E.P. de Vries and Mr. MH. G. Wijtten were reappointed as board member, and the CEO held a presentation on the newly acquired company 'IPM Potato Group'. 

Below are the changes that have taken place.

With regard to roles within the Board of Growers: In March, Mr Doppenberg resigned, there has been no replacement. Mr. P. Langeveld has taken on the role of member of the Board of Growers for the region North-Holland in addition to Texel. In June Mr. R. Rozema resigned, there has been no replacement because of the cessation of the activities of the consumption contracts by HZPC. Mr. Gesink is chairman and Mr. Hendrikse is the vice-chair. Mr. Vaandrager is the secretary.

In the Council of Breeders: A. Doppenberg resigned and was replaced by T. Pollema.