Mts. Teeuwen from Helden, the Netherlands, recently started harvesting the new Dutch parsnips. The company has become one of the biggest growers and packers for the fresh market, and this year their area has once again expanded slightly. “The way we work is unique in the Netherlands. We harvest the product fresh throughout the winter, and polish and pack them ourselves, that’s unheard of for storage parsnip,” says Geert Teeuwen.
“New this year is that we developed a weighing and packing line to pack the parsnips in any desired weight. We decided to be even more service-oriented to meet the ever-changing wishes of customers, in part due to demand from retail for specific sizes and packings.”
“We harvest the parsnip fresh until late April, and then we personally import from Spain in May and June, so that we can supply parsnip year-round. We’re having a good harvest this year. Elsewhere in Europe, the production was more difficult due to the warm weather, but it wasn’t that bad for us. Buyers are now quickly switching to Dutch parsnips,” Geert continues.
Teeuwen supplies the parsnips to wholesalers and exporters throughout the Netherlands, and he is the regular supplier of local supermarket chain Jan Linders. “In the past ten years, the production of parsnip grew quite explosively, but the market is now stabilising somewhat,” Geert explains. “Demand is now quite good at the start of the season, but parsnip continues to mostly be a winter vegetable.”
“The benefit is that parsnip prices are fairly stable throughout the year. As a result, we can keep sales stable as well, otherwise the sales would be much more irregular for a crop like this. But we don’t have to change prices every day. We’re quite good at the production of small-scale products. We complete the production of parsnip with that of asparagus and black radish (winter radish), root parsley and white radish,” Geert concludes.
For more information:
Mts. Teeuwen
Geert Teeuwen
Hazenakkerweg 6
5988 NJ Helden, the Netherlands
Tel +31 6 27 31 10 25
info@teeuwentelers.nl