Van Dijck Groenteproducties was able to welcome new customers thanks to their water-based lettuce cultivation, according to Peter van Dijck in an interview with duurzaambedrijfsleven.nl.
At the start of this year Van Dijck Groenteproducties, originally an outdoor vegetable cultivator, started with water-based lettuce cultivation on five hectares in Siberia. The reason for this was demand from Lidl. “At first, Lidl bought outdoor lettuce, but we increasingly often needed pesticides to keep the lettuce healthy. Besides, we experienced more and more problems with stability and supply reliability because of volatile weather conditions, among other things. That made the supply for Lidl uncertain. Now we can guide everything, we have become a more stable and reliable supplier,” Van Dijck says.
It is not just Lidl that profits from the new cultivation method, other customers are also interested. “Many large processing companies get their products from the Netherlands in summer and from Spain in winter. They want continuity and clean products with as few pesticides as possible. Our production method ensures clean production year-round, so that crops no longer have to be bought abroad. That also cuts back on the amount of transportation kilometres.”