STRAIGHT FROM THE POLDER TO EASTERN EUROPE
EVERY DAY, TRUCKLOADS OF UMBELLIFERS BEARING THE SUMMUM LABEL HEAD TO EASTERN EUROPE. MOST OF THE VEGETABLES IN THE ORDINARY SEGMENT ARE GROWN IN NORTH-HOLLAND’S WIERINGERMEER POLDER BY PATRICK VAN BENSCHOP.
His father was a construction worker who, in the 1990s, bought a hectare of farmland. Alongside his job as a builder, he thought growing cabbages would be a nice hobby. At the time he couldn’t have imagined that his son, who like him never formally studied agriculture, would grow more than 200 hectares of vegetables 30 years later. Yet that’s what happened. Patrick van Benschop grows cabbage and celeriac on about 60 per cent of his land. On the other 40 per cent he grows carrots (orange, yellow and purple), parsnips and rooted parsley. He says: “I never grow on spec. I always go by what the market demands. That’s a way of working that suits me.” He farms in close collaboration with processing company Bruin Vegetables and trading and transport firm A.N. Boekel B.V. Their partnership led them to form a company together: White Gold Farm, which markets vegetables under the name Summum. The biggest advantage of this arrangement is that it lets them respond quickly to the Eastern European market. The company’s trucks depart daily for Denmark, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, among others.
34
BEJO CARROT MAGAZINE
Highly mechanized
Van Benschop has mechanized his farm in Waarland, North-Holland, to a high degree. Sowing carrots is the only work that he outsources; his own people and machinery take care of the rest. “Labour is relatively expensive in this country. We also see Eastern European countries growing more and more of its own produce. So we will have to find our own way to distinguish ourselves in the market. I focus on market demand through the orders we receive at White Gold Farm. We can get a lot of work done with a relatively small crew. When we’re harvesting cabbage I bring in more people via an employment agency. We do the rest ourselves.”
Perspectives
Van Benschop grows cabbage in Waarland and carrots and celeriac in the Wieringermeer polder, about half an hour’s drive away. From the field, the produce goes directly to Bruin Vegetables and from there is sent straight to the market. To guarantee high volume and ensure crop rotation, Van Benschop constantly trades land. He grows his own Japanese oats but prefers to leave potato growing to others. Focus: that’s his strength.
"Once harvested, our produce has to get into the shops as fast as possible. Suitable varieties are Bangor, Blanes, Mello Yello and Deep Purple." Patrick van Benschop
He does see that volume is becoming a problem in the area where he farms. “The soil here has not been virgin for a long time. We don’t achieve the kind of volume in carrots that you can get in the newer polders, like the Noordoostpolder. That’s one reason we’re not in the storage segment. Once harvested, our produce has to be delivered to stores as soon as possible. Varieties suitable for fast distribution are Bangor and Blanes in the early carrots and Mello Yello and Deep Purple for coloured carrots. In rooted parsley we grow Arat, Eagle and Arctica.” The soil is also the reason that he expects to put more emphasis on celeriac than carrots in the future. “I see opportunities in cabbage, too, including for storage, by the way. Right now we’re working on developing a harvester, so that we can cut the early cabbages automatically and will be less dependent on the availability of seasonal workers. I also think we will start growing more rooted parsley. That’s been a difficult crop for us. It’s hard to say why it does well one year and poorly the next. But I’m confident that we can work with the plant breeders to get a handle on it.”
Moving forward with confidence
Van Benschop expects to earn the Planet Proof label for his business in 2021. Switching to organic growing is not an option for him: It’s not his style. “I want my crops to have a slightly higher yield every time, year over year. That’s my aim. I do it by using foliar fertilization. The big question is whether the fertilizers that are currently permitted will remain on the market. If not, then it will be a challenge. But other than that I’m confident about the future. As long as there’s demand—and I don’t doubt that the market will always need The Netherlands to fill in the gaps—we will be able to deliver quickly with high quality produce.”
BEJO CARROT MAGAZINE
35