Verduyn expands storage space in Haspengouw

Family business Verduyn will start expanding very soon, with extra storage space. This means that the storage of vegetables is mainly in their own hands. “We have bought storage space near Haspengouw,” says Alexander Verduyn. “We are very busy at the moment finishing the new building so that it is ready to be used. We did a lot of renovation and we are building a hypermodern cooling system. We expect that it will be finished sometime in October this year. We will open this storage warehouse in the area of Haspengouw. Here, we will store conventional as well as organic vegetables.” 

Until now, the vegetables were mainly stored by the producers that supplied Verduyn and in rented storage units. “Now, we have our own warehouse and we can store 10,000 cubic crates. This way we are more flexible, and we can supply our customers even better.” Verduyn has its own production company, named Agricolas, with an area of 300 hectares. Various vegetables are grown here, including broccoli, red cabbage, carrots, and celeriac. This area has expanded every year. “The products are completely cleaned after the harvest and supplied to the customer.” 

The harvest of vegetables is in full swing at the moment, for the market as well as industry. “The harvest has not always been smooth, we have had severe losses in Belgium and the Netherlands due to the extreme weather conditions, such as rain and hail. The broccoli and baby carrots have had a lower yield than expected. That means that we can only supply our regular customers and there is less available for the market. Another disadvantage of the bad weather is that the cabbages that have been harvested have varied in sizes this year, so there is a lot more to be sorted. The damage in the larger carrots is limited; these are less sensitive to rain.” The carrot market is all right at the moment, according to Alexander. “We cannot predict what it will do in the near future; today it can be bad, and tomorrow better. It all depends on the weather and what other countries do.”