The Herman Kuijper business from Amstelveen, The Netherlands, has been selling Asian vegetables for twenty years. The company buys Asian vegetables such as paksoi, shanghai paksoi, mini-paksoi, kaichoi and choisam from sellers in the area during the summer and has fixed contracts with Spanish growers during the winter months. The Spanish season will start again within three weeks.
"My father used to grow the Asian vegetables himself. Today we have people in the family who grow these vegetables for us," tells Rob Kuijper.
"Traditionally our company was strongly focused on export. We have been selling a relatively fixed volume, but there isn't much growth in the turnover of these products. The supply can sometimes be unpredictable, but we have continued to have enough supply in previous weeks."
The consumption of Asian vegetables in the Netherlands continues, according to Rob, to still be restricted to Asian oriented people. "A Dutch person might consider consuming it if it was in a cookbook, but I don't see a product like shanghai paksoi replacing iceberg lettuce."
For more information:
Rob Kuijper
Herman Kuijper BV
Noorddammerweg 91B
1187 ZS Amstelveen
Tel.: 0031 20 645 29 88
Fax: 0031 20 645 24 22
www.hermankuijper.com