Nickerson Direct, part of Europe’s leading plant breeding company Group Limagrain, is celebrating over 50 years in the supply of seed potatoes to British farmers.

The business was created in the late 1950s when founder Joseph Nickerson began importing potato seed from the Netherlands and half a century later it continues to offer high-quality seed potatoes at competitive prices, as well as on-farm advice from a national team of Seed Specialists.

It was at around the same time that the first Massey Ferguson-branded tractors started rolling off the factory floor in Coventry that Joseph Nickerson imported 25 tonnes of Sirtima seed, a “good tasting” early variety, and planted them in North Lincolnshire and the Yorkshire Wolds. This trial was the start of a seed potato business that has successfully traded with growers in the UK ever since.

In the 1960s, the company’s seed potato business expanded dramatically and during 1969 Nickerson’s UK-based seed production topped 11,473 tonnes. The same decade also saw the company introduce the red-skinned maincrop variety Desiree and, with it, Nickerson produced the first ‘grower guidelines’ for the variety.

During the 1970s and 1980s, Nickerson continued to offer UK growers a wide range of varieties including Wilja, Marfona and Romano, as well as pioneering techniques to produce disease-free seed potatoes.

The 1990s saw the company introduce both Fianna and Picasso to the UK market and continued its quest for health and seed quality with the production of high-grade mini-tubers in Scotland.

Today, working with Europe’s leading breeders, Nickerson Direct continues to offer new and exciting varieties combined with independent advice,” explains Paul Hart, the company’s Potato Business Manager. “We are very excited about future developments. During 2009 we have expanded our team of Seed Specialists into the West Country and East Yorkshire, and Nickerson Direct will also be working very closely with one of Europe’s largest seed potato breeders on two recently-introduced varieties.”