Putting the rhubarb trade on the map

“Rhubarb is a vegetable, and in vegetable production it’s quite a small crop with an area of about 300 hectares in the Netherlands. It can therefore be called a proper niche product. In Heide (500 inhabitants), near Venray, five of the roughly 45 companies active in the village are growing and selling rhubarb. Because of this, Heide is probably the Dutch village with the highest number of rhubarb companies within its borders in terms of percentage,” says Martin Peeters. With three other growers (Niek Gielens, Cornelissen Rabarber and Joep Spee) and his own company Peeters Bonten Handel, he organises the Rhubarb Festival in Heide in the weekend of 28 and 29 April.

“We want to properly put rhubarb on the map. The idea for this has been around for four years, when we visited the rhubarb festival in Wakefield, in the UK. The UK has much more of a rhubarb culture than the Netherlands. By organising it ourselves, we also want to tell the story behind rhubarb,” Martin says. 

The week long festival in Wakefield, organised by colleague grower Janet Oldridge, draws tens of thousands of people to Wakefield and her company. The village of Heide therefore fully supports the plans of the growers. If it becomes successful, it might even get a sequel. Martin: “It will be bigger than initially thought in any case.The theme is smelling, tasting and experiencing. We’re working hard on promotion, but in the end, the number of visitors will depend on the weather.”

Rhubarb is a vegetable often served as side dish, and it’s often used in pies. That’s why the organisation will also hold a pie-baking contest. “Baking is in, and we’ve already received the first entries.” In neighbouring countries, rhubarb is mostly industrially processed into purée, compote or juice. “Germany in particular has a juice culture. When we want to supply product to a factory, we often can’t even get through because of the consumers loading their cars with crates of juice. That’s why we also import the juice back to the Netherlands, where it’s mixed with apple juice and marketed.”

Rhubarb is grown practically year-round, production methods vary significantly. “For a niche product, you often have to develop your own methods and machines, and we want to show this during the festival. It’s therefore interesting to both colleague greenhouse and outdoor growers and to consumers.” The production from sheds will end this week, and the outdoor harvest will start.

The production of rhubarb can be split into three harvest and sales methods. The first sales channel is from April to September, and is the outdoor harvest. This product is well-known by most consumers: the fresh green stems, the bottom of which colour a lovely red. Martin: “In February-March consumers say goodbye to winter foods, and they feel like eating fresh vegetables such as rhubarb again. It’s still a niche product that’s still finding its way towards catering services. A discussion about this is happening among growers. I think the production is too small, and therefore doesn’t get a big enough chance in retail. On the other hand, some growers think scarcity would result in good pricing.”

Once the growing season is in full swing, the second sales channel is created, which lasts from May to June. That harvest is mostly meant for the processing industry. This product finds its way to consumers as rhubarb juice, compote, in desserts and pies. “Through the trade company, I de-burden both factories and growers. I buy the harvests and make sure deliveries are tuned to the processing schedule of the factories. This concerns bulk, and prices reflect that. Germany is a major sales market, and we – with a German colleague – have a position of about 65 per cent in the rhubarb juice segment there. During the season, we supply about 500 tonnes of rhubarb to the juice industry together.”

The third sales channel lasts from November to late March, and concerns the harvest of plants grown in dark sheds. This production method isn’t known to most consumers, and this rhubarb mostly finds its way to catering services abroad and nationally. “From January until week 13, prices were 3 euro per kilogram on average, which are decent prices. Prices are higher than for outdoor rhubarb, because harvest volumes are much lower. This rhubarb grows in the dark from reserve stocks of the plants. Afterwards the plants end up on the compost heap, so more material is needed as well.”

For more information:
Maatschap Peeters-Bonten
Heidseschoolweg 4
5812 AK Heide, the Netherlands 
+31 (0)478 581 976
+31 (0)6 538 759 39
peeters@rabarber.biz
www.rabarber.biz