Company building first year round producing greenhouse in Sweden
"The expansion also means that we can produce larger quantities of tomatoes in the summer. It is needed to keep up with competition," says Pedersen in an interview with Ystadsallehanda.se.
Danish company Gartneriet Alfred Pederson & son Aps is run by managing director and owner Mads Pedersen. Family-owned and operated, Mads Pedersen's company was established in 1948, starting out with the cultivation of cut flowers in two small greenhouses but soon switching to cucumbers and tomatoes. In 1982 it was the first company in Europe to put hand-picking tomatoes directly into retail trays. In 1995 the company began selling its tomatoes under the brand name 'Katrina & Alfred'. Today, this innovative specialist tomato cultivator grows Denmark's most flavourful tomatoes; according to Pedersen the time has come to expand production and invest heavily.
"We believe there is a lack of Swedish tomatoes during the summer, there are more and more imports of foreign tomatoes. If you want to compete you have to have large volumes of local produce," says Mads Pedersen in the article.
From left to right: Wouter Kuiper of greenhouse builder KUBO, Mads Pedersen and Jan Vellekoop of P.D.I. (screening installations) at Fruit Logistica in Berlin, 2014.
According to the website Ystadsallehanda.se, the construction of the new greenhouse has been running since mid-April and will be completed by 1 September. But the venture was about to end in tears . When construction had just begun the builders were force to stop because they started building the greenhouse before the building permit was ready. The company now faces a fine of 2.2 million Swedish crowns.
"Everything was due to a misunderstanding. There was poor communication. We thought that everything was in order but it was not," say Pedersen." As soon as we were told that there was a problem we stopped production. We lay everything down and the workers went back to Holland, says Mads Pedersen hoping that the company will not have to pay the fine.
If we have to pay , it would be a disaster. There is a lot of money involved, he says.
Source: Ystadsallehanda.se
