HOFF Norske Potetindustrier is a Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 agricultural cooperative processing and distributing potato

Potato

The potato is a starchy, tuberous crop from the perennial Solanum tuberosum of the Solanaceae family . The word potato may refer to the plant itself as well as the edible tuber. In the region of the Andes, there are some other closely related cultivated potato species...

 produce. The company is owned by 4,000 farmer

Farmer

A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...

s and has plants in Inderøy

Inderøy

Inderøy is a municipality in Nord-Trøndelag county, Norway. It is part of the Innherad region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Straumen. Other villages include Gangstadhaugen, Hylla, Kjerknesvågen, Røra, Sakshaug, Sandvollan, Småland, Utøy, and Vangshylla.The...

 (Sundnes Brenneri

Sundnes Brenneri

Sundnes Brenneri is a Norwegian potato processing plant and distillery located in Inderøy. It produces akvavit, potato chips, potato starch flour and mashed potatoes. The plant was started in 1844, four years before private destilling was banned...

), Gjøvik

Gjøvik

is a town and a municipality in Oppland county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Gjøvik.In 1861, the village of Gjøvik in the municipality of Vardal was granted town status and was separated from Vardal to form a separate municipality...

, Brumunddal

Brumunddal

Brumunddal is the largest settlement in the Ringsaker municipality of Hedmark, Norway. It is a small, densely populated area surrounded by scenic countryside and farms on the eastern shore of Norway's largest lake: Mjøsa...

, Skjetten, Stange

Stange

is a municipality in Hedmark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Hedmarken. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Stangebyen.-Name:...

 (Atlungstad Brenneri) and Klepp

Klepp

Klepp is a municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The parish of Klep was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 ....

. The company processes one third of the potato produce in the country.

The main producs are frozen

Frozen food

Freezing food preserves it from the time it is prepared to the time it is eaten. Since early times, farmers, fishermen, and trappers have preserved their game and produce in unheated buildings during the winter season. Freezing food slows down decomposition by turning water to ice, making it...

, fresh and canned potatoes, including french fries

French fries

French fries , chips, fries, or French-fried potatoes are strips of deep-fried potato. North Americans tend to refer to any pieces of deep-fried potatoes as fries or French fries, while in the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand, long, thinly cut slices of deep-fried potatoes are...

, potato starch flour and potato chip

Potato chip

Potato chips are thin slices of potato that are deep fried...

s. Other products include oil, spice

Spice

A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, or vegetative substance used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for flavor, color, or as a preservative that kills harmful bacteria or prevents their growth. It may be used to flavour a dish or to hide other flavours...

, onion

Onion

The onion , also known as the bulb onion, common onion and garden onion, is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. The genus Allium also contains a number of other species variously referred to as onions and cultivated for food, such as the Japanese bunching onion The onion...

 and akvavit

Akvavit

Akvavit or aquavit is a traditional flavoured spirit that is principally produced in Scandinavia, where it has been produced since the 15th century....

. In total the company produces about 100 products.

History

The first industrialized production with potato started in 1848 when private distilling of liquor was banned. In 1879 Brennerienes Forening was created, as the first sector to be organised as a cooperative

Cooperative

A cooperative is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit...

in the country, already dating back to the 1840s. Potato flour became an industrial product in the late 1800s, though not until 1941 was Potetmelfabrikkenes Salgskontor created as a cooperative. These two merged in 1981 to create Norske Potetindustrier that changed name to HOFF Norske Potetindustrier in 1994 when the local distilleries and production plants were merged with the distribution offices.