Sustainability
GROWING TOGETHER IN A SUSTAINABLE WORLD
We owe our existance to what the land provides us with. It is therefore only logical for us that sustainability is one of our top priorities within our companies. We want to produce tasty and healthy food now and in the future. That is why we grow in an innovative way and use the latest techniques and insights. Some examples of this are a circular water system, solar panels for green electricity, the use of biological crop protection and robotics. Here you can read more about these topics.
WE BELIEVE IN THE POWER OF SUSTAINABLE COOPERATION
How do we do this?
Clean water
Sustainable water use is very important for our environment. We use our natural resources sparingly. A circular water system ensures that the water we receive from nature and that we use for our crops is purified before it is absorbed back into nature. Rainwater is collected in a basin. We use this to grow our plants and in the cultivation of the fruit.
We have tray fields for growing our plants. Excess water is collected, purified and reused. For example, in the production of our strawberries. The strawberry plants are placed on racks and the excess water is collected here as well. The water then passes through filters where residues of fertilisers and crop protection agents are filtered out. This is how we ensure that the water we use is returned to nature as cleanly as possible.
Covered cultivation of strawberries and raspberries
Strawberries are grown on racks in tunnels, under rain shelters or in greenhouses. This allows us to better protect the plants against extreme weather conditions. We can limit the use of crop protection products as a result. In addition, our employees can pick the fruit standing up. That's better for the health of our pickers.
Green energy
The quality of our strawberries, raspberries and leeks is guaranteed by packaging and cooling them in our cold stores immediately after harvesting. In addition, we have cold stores for the storage of our plants, which are harvested in autumn. That takes energy. We have equipped the roofs of our warehouses with solar panels and use as much green energy as possible for our cold stores and other installations.
Development in biological crop protection
An ecological balance in our environment is of great importance. Bumblebees and bees are invaluable to us! Bees and bumblebees take care of pollination, which results in fruit on our plants. We are committed to keeping crop protection in our crops to a minimum. We fight diseases, pests and fungi with biological means wherever possible. We invest in research into solutions to replace harmful agents with green alternatives. On a large part of our acreage we now control harmful insects such as thrips by using beneficial insects.
Robotics
Technology is also developing rapidly in horticulture. Machines make work easier. Robots are developed to take over repetitive work. We work with a plug plant machine for the automatic setting of cuttings. We also invest in the development of a strawberry picking robot that is used to harvest the fruit. This robot will also be able to scan the crop in the long term, so that diseases, pests and fungi can be detected earlier and treated immediately. This results in better quality and a reduction in the use of crop protection products.
This project is made possible by:
