Fine tuning between asparagus and broccoli

With all the price wars in the market, fine tuning has become key to survival. Verschuren Broccoli has been investing in early and late varieties for a number of years, but there are big risks attached to this. "We have had the first few failures of the season already," says Peter Verschuren. "The earliest variety (Sirtaki) didn't grow well. The Malibu was available from May 20. Although the flavour was fine, it wasn't absorbed well by the market due to colour differences. There was also broccoli available from Spain at the time, which has its effects. After this difficult start to the Dutch season, the demand pulled up considerably last week, but this didn't continue this week."

This spring Verschuren Broccoli will therefore work less with early varieties, and invest their energy more in asparagus. "We have been doing this for around 4 years and we like it," says Peter. Although there hasn't been a joyful atmosphere in the asparagus trade since the peak season, Verschuren isn't bothered by the low market prices. They sell everything locally. Yet it is still necessary to remain sharp. "You have to put personal energy in it, you can't constantly be putting thirds in the store. People come for a chat with the growers. This is actually a lot of fun, you get a lot of positive feedback, something you never get from retail." This doesn't mean that consumers know where to find you or come to you en masse. "There's an asparagus grower in every Brabant village these days. To grow our brand we turned our shed into a pop-up restaurant for 7 weeks. It was a big success and we received a lot of new customers due to this."

Restyling of the shed into a pop-up restaurant, photo Als Nieuw 

Asparagus cultivation is a good combination with regular broccoli cultivation. "You want to start after the winter. With asparagus you can start early in mini tunnels. We want to invest even more energy in this next season. We notice that consumers are desperate for something different after the winter. If you have asparagus then, you can sell it quickly and the price isn't an issue yet. But when consumers have eaten asparagus 2 or 3 times, it starts to slow down. This is why we stop with asparagus on time, around the start of June. This is when the broccoli season starts with Ironman which we can focus on fully."

Broccoli from Verschuren is for the most part absorbed onto the Dutch market. Price formation is under pressure there due to the supply in surrounding countries, where the area of broccoli has grown significantly. "Poland has expanded its cultivation, Germany is mostly self sufficient, sales in the UK are becoming more difficult due to the decrease in the pound and Brexit. Eastern Europe remains but those countries don't have much price power. A good price formation is only really possible when the weather conditions in the surrounding countries is very bad, but this hasn't happened much in recent years," according to Peter.

Broccoli is still increasing in popularity but the supply is still ahead of the demand, according to Verschuren, which makes the market problematic. There is also always the price battle in which buyers are making higher and higher demands, but the (extreme) influence of the weather and the shortage on the labour market are causing problems. "All in all continuing to exist is a challenge. We have a wide range of problems to solve and it's hard to find the perfect solution," says Peter. 

As well as cultivating early and late varieties, Verschuren Broccoli has also invested in enlarging the scale to maintain their competitive position. Is this the solution? "Small growers who started or are starting in broccoli drop out quickly. The big companies can hold on for longer, if one drops out they will leave a space behind," according to Peter.

Peter sees little future in specialties. "You can offer different colours, but I don't think the market needs it. Stem or asparagus broccoli is a lot more work and even more difficult in terms of labour." Peter sees opportunities to improve the packaging. "It has been the same for 20 years. It would also be good for a new special packaging to be developed which is suitable for sales of broccoli in fresh packages."

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Peter Verschuren