A busy time of the year has arrived for Verhoeckx Paddestoelen. The wholesaler from Kerkdriel, specialised in top fruit and mushrooms, is placing the new apple and pear harvest in cold storage and preparing for a busy autumn mushrooms season.
"My father was a fruit and mushroom grower. When my uncle quit his mushroom trade and my father took over, my brothers indicated they would prefer to be mushroom growers, which was still a lucrative business back then. I fancied the trade and moved into it when I was eighteen. At first my father did fruit and I did mushrooms. When I was 25 I bought half the shares and ten years later I bought the other half," says Paul Verhoeckx.
"I'm from a time when there were over 800 Dutch mushroom growers. There are now 100 left, but the volume has remained the same. There has been a strong wave of consolidation under pressure from the Polish mushrooms, but I expect the worst to be over now. In my youth every farmer's son wanted to grow mushrooms, but that was back when they called mushrooms white gold. Now I don't know any growers whose son is ready to take over the business. On the other hand I don't believe the Dutch mushroom cultivation and trade will disappear. This year for instance the mushrooms market is reasonably stable and there was no real price dip this summer," says Paul
These days Verhoeckx Paddenstoelen trades around 100 tonnes of mushrooms per week. In the over 50 years of its existence the company has grown to a well known wholesaler with the patronage of supermarkets at home and abroad, catering and trade partners. Paul sees the share of special mushrooms increasing over the next few years. "We also offer all varieties organically. Almost all varieties are available both cut and uncut and we also carry countless mix packages."
Norway largest export destination
Verhoeckx sources the mushrooms from growers from the region. "The white mushrooms often come from the larger growers and the portabellos, shiitakes and oyster mushrooms come from the smaller, specialised growers. Paul sells most of his mushrooms on the domestic market. Norway has been his largest export destination for thirty years. He has his own conditioned trucks for domestic transport, with which the daily fresh picked mushrooms are picked up from the grower and taken to the Dutch customer.
Paul recently divided the Fruit company and the Mushroom company to get a better insight into the financial results of both activities. "I also have three children. They might not be interested yet, but they may want to take over a branch in the future," says the trader. Those who think Paul spends entire days behind his desk are very wrong. "I prefer to help loading and unloading every day, it's the best part. And at night I prefer to work on an old truck. I've fixed up two so far. It took me five years for both trucks."
He sees the future of his company with positivity. "We have a great product in mushrooms, of which many people don't know the many application possibilities, as well as a good top fruit trade. With twenty staff and a total company area of 7,000 m2 we also have the capacity to process large volumes. So an extra customer is always welcome!"
For more information:
Verhoeckx & Zn.
Hoorzik 25
5331 KJ Kerkdriel
Tel. +31 (0)418 63 14 93
Fax +31 (0)418 63 33 85
info@verhoeckxenzn.nl
www.verhoeckxenzn.nl