"Given the nice weather, open field sales are actually too quiet," says Dutch lettuce grower John Lucassen of Lucassen Agri Cultuur. "The crop's having a good season, and we're harvesting nice quantities of great quality open field lettuce."
Lucassen Agri has been cultivating various kinds of open field lettuce for more than 40 years. It grows a wide range of lettuces - butter lettuce, red and green oak leaf lettuce, Lollo rossa, Lollo bionda, Batavia lettuce, multi frisée, endive, Romana cos lettuce, and different Salanova varieties - on 110 hectares. Most of this is planted on contract and goes to processors. The rest is sold on the fresh market.
John says sales are very stable. "Some types haven't increased or decreased much in recent years. We sell most of our produce to processors."
"They're in the Netherlands, but also to France, Italy, Greece, and Germany," explains John. Lucassen does not cultivate organic lettuce.
"I don't think it suits open-field lettuce. The shrinking resources are already hugely challenging for us. After all, we're dealing with a natural product."
Unlike many other horticultural companies, Lucassen Agri has no staffing issues yet. "We harvest automatically - that works in our favor. We use self-propelled harvesting machines, so workers don't have to bend over. The harvested lettuce arrives at working height and only needs to be cleaned and packed," concludes. John.
For more information:
Lucassen Agri Cultuur
5 Helenaveenseweg
5975 MS, Sevenum, NL
Tel: +31 (0) 653 371 063
Email: j@lucassenagri.nl
Website: www.lucassenagri.nl