On Friday May 8th The Greenery held a 'Take off' for the soft fruit season together with associates, customers and employees. While enjoying the sunshine and a drinks and snacks, new developments in product and packaging were presented by the Soft fruit center Schalkwijk by the van Garderen family together with the Soft fruit team from The Greenery.
Introducing new soft fruit packaging
The 'open top' packaging of soft fruit follows the style that was introduced last year with strawberries and covered soft fruit. With this change The Greenery has created a clear line in their soft fruit products. In addition, the small package has been changed from 150 grams to 125 grams. This change comes from demand in the market, and it is also more standard on a worldwide level.
Soft fruit development at The Greenery
For a long time soft fruit was a small player at the Greenery, but their soft fruit sector has grown not only within The Greenery but also when compared to other Dutch soft fruit suppliers. The Greenery's fruit unit makes up over one-third of their total growers turnover.
In the soft fruit area strawberries are by far the most important product, in terms of volume, with more than 20 million kg per year from our own growers. We have learned that to maintain this position, and to strengthen it, it is also necessary for our small woody fruits like currants, raspberries and blackberries to be important products. To make headway in this area we have worked really hard the last few years by initiating exclusive variety programs, hiring an Agronomist who can act as the link between demands from the market and return from the growers, and through a dedicated soft fruit team made up of motivated and skilled commercial associates and sourcing and planning staff.
Soft fruit center Schalkwijk and the van Garderen family
Soft fruit center Schalkwijk is a good example of optimal cooperation between The Greenery and the specialism of growers who are members of the Coforta cooperative. Soft fruit center Schalkwijk acts as a specialized packaging and service station for the optimal logistics and processing of soft fruit. It really is a family company, with the whole family working in the company; Anton, Ria, Anco and Geke.
Schalkwijk now has two locations where both production and cooling take place, and where the packaging/service station is. In Eck and Wiel mainly the cultivation and storage of red berries takes place. The company now employs an average of 35 people, and during the season this number can go up to 80. These people are employed in both the cultivation and packaging centers. Van Garderen soft fruit grows approximately 15 hectares of red berries, 2 hectares of raspberries and 1 hectare of blackberries. In addition, the company can store 450 tons of berries for a while. In 2010 they could produce 2 million punnets of soft fruit, in 2014 this number jumped to 8.5 million punnets, and there is still more growth to come.
For product and commercial information:
The Greenery
Marcel van Lith,
Tel: +31 (0) 180 656 974
Mob: +31 (0) 650 607 895
m.vanlith@thegreenery.com