Ferdinand Hofstede, a Dutch entrepreneur who has been active in the fresh produce industry for years, has been living in Szczecin, a Polish town near the German border, since 1996. Freddi, as his friends call him, used to be employed by a Dutch company in Enschede. “When that company went down, I went into business for myself.” His first business venture lasted a short while, and after working for another company Hofstede headed for Poland, seeing new business opportunities.
After several different ventures, that took him away from fresh produce, he returned to the industry when he accepted a job at Jurasz, a wholesale business with branches in Szczecin and Gdansk. Hofstede was responsible for the purchase of produce from Holland and Belgium. This year, he was supposed to retire, but fate intervened.
“The person set to take over Jurasz Sczecin couldn’t raise the money,” says Hofstede, “and people were talking about closing down the company. I just didn’t have the heart to see it go down.” Together with his wife Krystyna, who owns Sedina Fresh Company in Szczecin, he decided to buy Jurasz Sczecin himself.
The wholesaler now operates under the name FK Fruit, named after Freddi and Krystyna. Hofstede hopes their children will continue the business in the future. FK Fruit imports fresh produce from Holland, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy and France. “Mostly, we import stone fruit, and vegetables such as leeks from Portugal and carrots from Italy.” If he needs something, Hofstede just jumps in his car and drives back to Holland: “If I get mad, I can make Enschede in 5 hours.”
Doing business in Poland has some interesting peculiarities. “In Holland you buy a few tomatoes every now and then, but over here, when tomatoes and cucumbers become available, they sells in huge quantities. Pickles are popular here, but they are eaten a little differently. With lots of garlic, combined with all sorts of other things. It’s a fascinating place really…”