On Friday 1 June, Zachtfruitbedrijf Schalkwijk took a new cold store with shipping options into use. The stockholding supplier’s location and packing station for soft fruit of The Greenery has been expanded and improved for long-term storage of redcurrant and blueberry because of this. During the opening ceremony, Zachtfruitbedrijf Schalkwijk, The Greenery, Centrale Adviesdienst Fruitteelt (CAF) and Bayer CropScience confirmed their cooperation with ForwardFarming Fruit, to stimulate a sustainable and future-proof fruit production.
Opening new cold store
The new hall’s cooling capacity is 275 tonnes of redcurrants. This means total cooling capacity has been expanded to 500 tonnes. It’s a propane installation using temper as a cooling agent. The system has a heat exchanger. “Because of this, we can use the released heat to defrost the evaporators, and use it for the floor heating,” explains Anton van Garderen of Zachtfruitbedrijf Schalkwijk. New ULO-cooling is used, so that redcurrants and blueberries can be stored for long periods.
“We had an incredibly pleasant day. We were able to meet many customers and relations, I guess about 150 people showed up. After the opening, we continued for a bit longer, to celebrate the birthdays of myself and my daughter, so we’re looking back on a wonderful day,” Anton reminisces. According to him, it was high time to open the new construction. “Every year, we grow by about 20-25 per cent, and in the old setting, we had trouble keeping up with this growth. For example, the lorries still had to enter the site backwards. With the construction of new loading docks, cold store and the expansion of the production company, we’re now ready for the future.”
ForwardFarming means sustainable agriculture in practice. In 2011, Bayer started the first Forward Farm in Belgium, but by now there are several dozens spread across the world. The foundation of every Forward Farm is that in the cooperation with the grower and at a project level, several partners work together on innovation, communication and education regarding sustainable agriculture.
ForwardFarming Fruit is different from other Forward Farms, because it’s based on supply chain cooperation between soft fruit grower Van Garderen, The Greenery, Centrale Adviesdienst Fruitteelt (CAF) and Bayer CropScience. They have all dedicated themselves to sustainable, future-proof fruit production by means of cooperation.