Joe Collins This is Me

 Web References

1. 1. Business Recorder

   www.brecorder.com/./story.php? - [Cached]

   Published on: 10/9/2002   Last Visited: 10/9/2002

   "We don't buy farmland anywhere, we pick local farmers and develop a close relationship with them," said Joe Collins, Frito-Lay's vice president for operations in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
   
   He said the company buys potatoes from four farms in Kashira and that the business relationship includes financial assistance and agricultural advice.
   
   The farmers also lease tractors and irrigation equipment from Frito-Lay, because labour is still largely manual in large swathes of the country.
   
   "In emerging markets like this, agriculture has not been invested in, so we help the farmers financially with equipment and seed," he said.
   
   Frito-Lay chooses the type of potato the farmers will cultivate and pays them on a contract basis.
   
   "The potatoes that are usually grown in Russia are for the table market.
   
   If you used them to make chips they would be the wrong colour and have brown or black spots," Collins said.
   
   SPROUTING WOES: The one big problem Frito-Lay faces in Russia is winter production.
   
   Chips are made from fresh potatoes in summer and a storage crop in winter, but the winter tubers need to be treated with a chemical called CIPC to stop them from sprouting and spoiling in warehouses.
   
   The firm has yet to gain permission from the Russian authorities to use the chemical.

2. 2. Frito's Russian chip plant eyes local potato crop

   biz.yahoo.com/rc/021004/food_r - [Cached]

   Published on: 10/4/2002   Last Visited: 10/4/2002

   "We don't buy farmland anywhere, we pick local farmers and develop a close relationship with them," said Joe Collins, Frito-Lay's vice president for operations in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
   
   He said the company buys potatoes from four farms in Kashira and that the business relationship includes financial assistance and agricultural advice.
   
   The farmers also lease tractors and irrigation equipment from Frito-Lay, because labour is still largely manual in large swathes of the country.
   
   "In emerging markets like this, agriculture has not been invested in, so we help the farmers financially with equipment and seed," he said.
   
   Frito-Lay chooses the type of potato the farmers will cultivate and pays them on a contract basis.
   
   "The potatoes that are usually grown in Russia are for the table market. If you used them to make chips they would be the wrong colour and have brown or black spots," Collins said.
   
   SPROUTING WOES
   
   The one big problem Frito-Lay faces in Russia is winter production.
   
   Chips are made from fresh potatoes in summer and a storage crop in winter, but the winter tubers need to be treated with a chemical called CIPC to stop them from sprouting and spoiling in warehouses.