DE KOSTER: GROWING IN RHYTHM WITH THE INDUSTRY fltr: Ellie, Dieter, Christine, Kristof and Paul
A NURSERY’S SUCCESS HAS LONG BEEN ABOUT MUCH MORE THAN WHAT HAPPENS IN THE GREENHOUSES. COMPUTERS, OTHER TECHNOLOGY, BUSINESS MANAGEMENT – THE MODERN PLANT GROWER NEEDS A BROAD SKILL SET. NOT ONLY THAT, YOU NEED TO FIND A WAY TO STAND OUT.
“We love the easy working relationship with Bejo.” Kristof de Koster
The De Koster wholesale nursery does that through specialization and exceptional customer service. “I think it’s extremely important to give customers fast, flexible help. And you need a lot of structure and technology to do that these days,” says Dieter de Koster, 33. He and his brother Kristof de Koster, 32, their parents, Paul and Christine, and his girlfriend Ellie run Flanders’ only organic nursery. De Koster isn’t the biggest player in the plant-breeding sector. They made a deliberate decision to specialize, and today they’re Flanders’ leading supplier of organic planting material. “About 75 per cent of our produce is grown for the organic sector,” Kristof says, “which ranges from smallscale pick-your-own farms to specialist precision agriculture for the fresh and industrial markets.” He adds, “Of course, we still provide standard plant stock for our long-time customers. They can count on our best service for those products too. But we’re achieving the most growth in organic.”
A booming business De Koster is currently building an extra hectare of greenhouses. They need them, because the organic sector is growing, which means their business is too. This has been true for decades now. Dieter says, “I suspect that >>
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