New player in Dutch organic industry vegetables

Laarakker Groenteverwerking in Well wants to increasingly profile itself as a seller for organic products. Ad Lievense has been working there since late 2014, and under his management, Laarakker has established an organic branch: Laarakker BIO BV. “We started with this on February 15. Laarakker had been doing organic for a few years, but wanted to give more attention to this. It is my task to give Laarakker BIO a real face. We want to expand our cultivation, both in the Benelux and in Germany. We offer them a good range of possibilities. For instance, Laarakker has its own harvesting machines for peas, beans and spinach, and processing machines for various industry products.”

Ad describes the market for organic industry vegetables as a healthy market that grows steadily. Sales-wise, most of the products go abroad. “In addition to the increasing market within Europe, in recent years our customers are also seeing increased demand from the United States, while the dollar-Euro exchange rate is another advantage. Mainly in frozen products, it’s going very well. That is currently seeing the highest demand in the US. In the past two years, in California, the cultivation area for vegetables, persistent drought has caused some problems. It’s difficult to switch to the organic way of working there as well. We mainly see a big increase in demand for organic frozen products. Virtually no organic glass or tinned preserves are going to the US.”

Laarakker is aiming for a steady growth in organic. “The organic share is now 10 percent. The organic preserves market is still rather small, with only a few important players. So at the moment we are looking into the possibilities for expanding our organic range.” Ad notes that there is certainly interest in switching to organic. “Only recently, over 20 students once again graduated for the Orientation Course Organic Agriculture. I hope that his group won’t just cultivate for the fresh market en masse. I advise them to go for a combination, by growing industry vegetables as well. A varied range of crops is necessary for an organic farmer in any case. They won’t make do with just 5 or 6 crops.”

Laarakker also supports growers with making the switch to the organic way of working. “We do this by getting in touch with growers who are making the switch, or are considering to do so. We also regularly stay in touch with the agricultural informers, who guide the growers in the switching period and what comes after that. We can thus play an advisory role toward a healthy organic crop rotation plan, and we provide sales opportunities for virtually all products. We also participated in the Orientation Course Organic Agriculture ourselves this winter and spring. In addition, we organize a grower meeting once or twice a year at our company.” DLV Plant’s Knowledge Network Organic Agriculture, for instance, visited Laarakker mid-December 2014 in conjunction with the BDEKO study group. In addition to a company presentation, the participants were also given an extensive tour of the company.

Ad emphasizes that organic cultivation is a lot more difficult than conventional cultivation, because a number of instruments to influence the cultivation are missing, such as chemicals and fertilizer. “And in all organic cultivations, the cost price is a lot higher due to higher costs for weed control and supply of the required organic fertilizer. Also, in general the revenues are slightly lower, or a harvest could fail completely. This then justifies the clear price difference compared to conventional.”

More information:
Laarakker Groenteverwerking
Ad Lievense
a.lievense@laarakker.nl
www.laarakker.nl

Author: Lenneke Schot