Opportunities for combination concepts with forgotten and conventional vegetables

More colour and flavour on plates. That is what Hollandteelt offers with a varied supply of coloured carrots, tubers and forgotten vegetables. Harold Zondag primarily sees a future for new concepts in which conventional products are combined with forgotten vegetables.

For years, Harold Zondag grew carrots at the arable farm in Biddinghuizen. To promote the company, and agriculture in general, he participated in the Flevofoodfestival in 2009. “I started talking to chef Pierre Wind while I was there. He approached me to present our carrots during a major children’s event at the stadium of ADO Den Haag. We created a fun quiz with questions about the product, and also showed all kinds of colourful carrots, which they could taste as well. That is how we started. We noticed an immediate interest in the coloured carrots, and in 2010, we started growing them ourselves,” he says. “In that same year, we presented our colourful carrots to the general public during the national entry of St Nicholas. Through publicity, we came into contact with the first exporters who wanted to work with us. In 2013, I continued with this enterprise independently.”

It started with five colourful carrots, but grew into an assortment of nineteen special carrot and tuber crops. Harold: “In addition to the coloured carrots, I also started doing forgotten, or better yet, special, vegetables, such as parsley root, Jerusalem artichoke, parsnip, radish and black salsify. We grow all the coloured beetroots and carrots ourselves. For this, we have an area of about 20 hectares. For the forgotten vegetables, we have partner growers. For part of our products, conventional carrots are still used. These are bought from other growers.” All products are available year-round, in principle.

The vegetables are supplied fresh in all kinds of variants: from small snack packaging to large packaging, both loose and mixed. Hollandteelt is particularly good at conceptually marketing vegetables for wholesalers, retail, food service, caterers and hospitality. For example, by now Harold has come up with various vegetable concepts for, among other things, stir-frying, microwave and barbecue. “Take the steaming bag with a combination of special carrots or vegetables and herb butter. The steaming bag is suitable for microwaving, so that a colourful and flavourful hot meal can be made in just five minutes,” he explains. Hollandteelt made it to the 2012 finale of De Smaak van NL with this product. Another version of this is Kookgemak (Cooking convenience), a line of pre-cooked vegetables, such as Rainbow carrot, yellow beetroot, yellow carrot and chioggia beetroot, in vacuum packaging. The range also contains various soups and stews. Many of the products are processed and packed by Hollandteelt. Although the products were mostly packed in bags in recent years, Hollandteelt is now making the transition to clamshell packaging, which results in a better presentation. Furthermore, for inspiration, the packaging has been provided with a loose recipe card. 

Recently, Hollandteelt introduced Oma’s Gemüse Mix in Germany. A combination of cylinder beetroot, parsnip and yellow carrot. “These are concepts in which flavour and colour play an important part. In that manner, I hope to bring Hollandteelt’s vegetables to attention in a positive manner, and to inspire consumers to eat more special vegetables,” Harold says. For developing new concepts, he mostly works with Restaurant De Klink in Biddinghuizen. “In the field of trends, hospitality is a leader, and they are more knowledgeable as regards flavour and ingredients. This particular chef has a background in retail, meaning the application of an idea towards the consumer can be made more easily. I often bring him some products and ideas, and he starts working with them. We are currently busy trying to figure out what to do for Easter. Something like a gratin, or a rosette of special vegetables might be nice.” According to him, opportunities are endless. Hollandteelt wants to continue to interest consumers. “If we had to use ‘conventional’ products for this, it would not be a problem at all. As long as there is some sort of common ground with special vegetables. A potato-parsnip hotchpotch, for example, might be more appealing to consumers than hotchpotch with just parsnip. In that way,we pay a lot of attention to the product, and people might be encouraged to eat more special vegetables.”

Harold personally sells the products to exporters for selling to wholesaler’s and industry. Germany, France and Scandinavia are the most important for the export. German food service is the largest market for Hollandteelt, and it is also the fastest growing one. “For this, I work with Sous Fresh from Venlo. You can tell that people in Germany are really open to these kinds of concepts nowadays. The domestic market is also still increasing, for that matter.” The vegetables from Hollandteelt are also supplied to hospitality wholesaler’s Hanos by now. He definitely still sees expansion opportunities for retail. A share of the products is now on the shelves of Deen from October to March. “We want to continue to grow, and for that, we see opportunities in the conceptual. Retail fell a bit behind in recent years. I hope to take some steps in this, and mostly see possibilities in the field of combination concepts, in which conventional products are combined with forgotten vegetables. Think of soups, salads, and perhaps also juices. Enough plans, therefore, to draw attention to vegetables in a lasting manner, by means of concepts, so that plates become more colourful and flavourful.”

More information:
www.hollandteelt.nl