The first Edamame beans from De Aardappelhoeve were on Colruyt's shelves at the beginning of September. It was a first for Belgium, that these young homegrown soybeans were on the Belgian shelves. An experiment by De Aardappelhoeve. "But the ambition is big. Eventually, we want to be able to supply Belgian Edamame year-round," says Bart Nemegheer of the Tielt-based company.
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"The choice of Edamame was strategic," he explains. "We started with wider cultivation, with the aim of working more sustainably and producing more vegetable proteins locally. Currently, as Belgium, we still source soybeans, or Edamame, which are actually young, unripe soybeans, from China, but when we started looking at how to broaden our cultivation, the thought came up why not try this in Belgium too. This way, we can offer a local product that fits perfectly into our cultivation schedule while offering benefits for soil and environment. Soya fixes nitrogen from the air, stores it in the soil and acts as a rest crop, improving soil structure and humus. This contributes to regenerative agriculture, CO2 reduction and healthier nutrition, and helps us build more sustainable production."
Year-round
"Since 2017, we have also been expanding our land and taking it on a longer-term basis. This gives us the opportunity to invest in carbon building and soil quality. Healthy soil means less need for crop protection and contributes to closing cycles, which brings both environmental and production benefits. We also want to share this principle with our retailers. It shows how we are committed to healthy, local and sustainable production, with an eye for the long term."
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A win-win situation, you could say. "The project started small, but the ambition is big. Ultimately, we want to realise a closed chain of Belgian Edamame. In the fresh season, we pick and pack the beans for sale in supermarkets, and later in the year we also want to offer them frozen ready to eat. This way, we can make locally produced product available all year round. This fits well with our vision of circular agriculture."
Discovery tour
So how to shape cultivation was initially a matter of trial and error. "We are the first in Belgium, which makes us pioneers. It is also still a voyage of discovery. There is little experience of local Edam cultivation in Belgium, which of course means we have to experiment with varieties and cultivation methods. Nevertheless, we are satisfied with the first results. The beans are sown around mid-May when the chance of night frost is gone and the quality of the harvest met expectations, so we will definitely expand the project next year. It is a process of learning and improving, slowly building knowledge and experience, eventually expanding a little bit each year until we can supply year-round."
So this year, the first full crop was at Colruyt and, Bart says, sales have been satisfactory. "They ended up being sold in the supermarket for two months this year and consumer sales were definitely positive," he says. Although Edamame is still a niche product, it was well received by supermarkets and through social media. The product fits well with modern cuisine and appeals especially to young consumers. This gives confidence that there is potential for further growth and further scale-up of cultivation."
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For more information:
Bart Nemegheer
De Aardappelhoeve
Tel: +32 (0)477 29 17 84
[email protected]
www.deaardappelhoeve.be
