The American open ground vegetable company, Church Brothers, has already been exporting directly to countries such as China, Japan, Taiwan and Korea. And still the volumes increase in the direction of Asia.
The American company grows a large number of open ground vegetables on an area of almost 35,000 acre (about 15,000 HA). In order to be able to supply sufficient plants the fields are spread over various areas.
Various containers go to the Far East on a weekly basis - especially to the large cities there is demand for Church Brothers vegetables. Ernst van Eeghen, marketing director at Church Brothers, knows that it is very difficult for Church Brothers to supply a constant stream of fresh vegetables, as all of them have small pieces of land. Whilst demand increases, Van Eeghen expects that the Chinese may also look for other channels in order to guarantee supply. "But as there are not many growers (who export) at the moment, we reap the fruits."
New of Church Brothers: Heirloom spinach
Constant temperature
The marketing director says that products are shipped to Asia all year round. Broccoli is the most important export product, but also lettuce and even spinach are more and more in demand. The voyage by boat takes about two to three weeks. The great advantage of shipping by sea instead of road is, according to Van Eeghen, that the temperature can be kept far more constant. The quality is guaranteed by a constant temperature between 1 and 2C. No products are added during the voyage and the electricity is switched on all the time, so that there are no highs and lows in the temperature. This improves the durability."
As far as management is concerned, attention to food safety is number one at the moment. This is the foundation of all the marketing director emphasizes. Especially the processing requires the necessary attention. "We have to make sure that no contamination occurs during washing and cutting."
Prevention
Van Eeghen is convinced that food safety will become even more important and that the industry will have to invest in that even more. "As we are one of the big players here we try and lead as far as technology is concerned. Most attention to this goes to prevention. By means of water and soil research and plant protection we want to prevent problems. That we cannot do for 100% as we deal with mother nature and with people. But we try as much as possible to prevent mistakes by implementing strict control programs."
In addition we put a lot of energy into plant and variety protection. "We want to get the maximum from our plants. Therefore we travel all over the world to find and test new plants. We want to remain at the front!"
