During the Dutch TV show Onze Boerderij, Yvon Jaspers visited tomato grower Leo van der Lans. The 30 million kilos of tomatoes Lans supplies every year are mostly meant for export. Leo doesn’t enjoy seeing Spanish tomatoes in Dutch supermarkets.
He says that the quality of Dutch tomatoes is better: “We’re not afraid of doing flavour tests with any country in the world because Dutch tomatoes are the best anyway.” He summarises: “The highest quality, most efficiency regarding water and we use pesticides the least.”
According to Leo, the problem is the fact that every country has different standards. “We have to supply to supermarkets throughout Europe, and you actually want an even playing field for that.” These regulations are strictest in the Netherlands. “The Netherlands always wants to be holier than the pope. It’s quite difficult to be able to compete that way.”