Moderate growth prevents rapid explosion of US greenhouse acreage

Yesterday we published the first part of an interview with Interview Greenhouses. In this second part you can read why the NY based greenhouse grower is not restrained when it comes to making investments, while colleagues in the Netherlands are undergoing one of the most difficult times in the history of Dutch horticulture?

"The growth of the production area in The United States is more moderate than the growth was in The Netherlands, and we still have a large [local] market available," said Biemans. "On top of this, the banks are more cautious about making money available for greenhouse growers, and this prevents a rapid explosion of the production acreage."

Comparing the costs of production, Biemans and the other US growers also have less difficulties than their former colleagues in the Netherlands. Intergrow uses natural gas and biomass for heating, and the prices for these commodities are fairly stable.

"We heat our greenhouses with a biomass installation as its primary source in the winter, that burns stable priced wood chips. In regards to the future, to manage our supplemental lighting we plan to buy electricity from the grid for 80% of our electricity needs, supplemented with 20% of our own produced electricity from a cogeneration. The cost of electricity from the grid in New York is reasonably priced.”

Currently Intergrow Greenhouses strictly grow Beef tomatoes [Rebelski, De Ruiter Seeds] and TOV [Endeavour from Rijk Zwaan and Merlice from De Ruiter Seeds]. According to Biemans these varieties find a good demand at the local consumers.

The growers did not, as yet, have plans to grow other varieties like snacking tomatoes or specialities, but sometimes they like to think about the possibilities. In the U.S. there is a lot of possibility with greenhouse vegetables, more than people could think of twentyfive years ago.

"At that time there were mainly open field tomatoes available, and nobody could have imagined what kind of impact greenhouses could have on the market", Biemans said."

As a result of the poor situation in The Netherlands, some Dutch growers showed interest over the last years to make a shift to other greenhouse crops like glasshouse strawberries. Can this become a greenhouse crop in the United States as well?

"There are none, or not many greenhouse growers in the US that are growing hydroponic strawberries in high end Venlo greenhouses. It might become an interesting market if you can succeed to market the produce for a price that can compete with the open field and tunnel production from Florida." Let's see what the future will bring us.

For more information on Intergrow, please visit: www.intergrowgreenhouses.com