Innovating

Innovating is growing

Innovation is important for the horticultural sector, particularly when it comes to large-scale cultivation. The intelligent use of new techniques and other systems enables us to grow our products with increasing efficiency.

Many aspects of our business are automated.

The trolleys used by our greenhouse employees and the harvesting trolleys automatically move along the paths at the required speed and lift our employees to work at height.
Fully automatic harvesting trolleys navigate the concrete paths to the processing hall. Once they arrive at the sorting room, the trolleys are stored in a buffer, one above the other, after which the sweet peppers are sorted and prepared for the customer.

Our greenhouses use modern technology to create an optimum greenhouse climate, e.g. the right type of screen cloths, rock wool mats, diffused glass and liquid fertilisers.

Modern sorting and packing stations

Sorting and packing takes place in our processing halls. We use modern machines and the sorting and packing process is largely automated.
By keeping the packing process in-house, we can respond to customer demand with a high degree of flexibility.
Loose sweet peppers are packed in boxes , crates or flow packs with customer specific film and box/crate.

Energy management

We are also innovative in the area of energy management. We ensure an optimum balance between energy demands and costs through the use of Geothermal heat, Biomass, CHPs (Combined Heat and Power) and heat pumps.

“Waste products” released during combustion of gas in the CHPs – heat and CO2 – are used to heat our greenhouses and for plant growth. The generated electricity that is not used by our business is returned to the grid to power homes in the Noordoostpolder region. This is how we generate sustainable energy.

CO₂

The use of geothermal energy and the heat generated by our biomass plants means we do not produce our own CO2 to use in the greenhouse. However, plants need CO2 to thrive.
Some waste-to-energy plants have been successful in capturing CO2 during the combustion process. This CO2 is supplied to the horticultural sector and we have been buying this CO2 since 2020 for use in our greenhouses. This is how a ‘waste product’ can be turned into a useful raw material.