Dutch outdoor vegetable crops are enjoying good yields. "That is actually true for all products, but also for the competitors, so there is enough product on the market," says Coen Swager of TB&S. "For instance, we do notice some price pressure in red and white cabbage sales. For the most part, pointed cabbage leaves are shipped to our premises by appointment, but the remainder is shipped in boxes mainly to southern Europe."
Left: Coen with Violetti, right: a field of pointed cabbage
Yields of the purple pointed cabbage Violetti are also strong this year. "It is a beautiful product. At the moment, we sell it mostly to slicers, who value its good qualities, but we hope supermarkets will also catch on. It remains an innovation on the vegetable shelf and, in our view, it is a missed opportunity that it is not yet structurally included," Coen says.
"The butternut squash harvest is also good this year, unlike last year, when we had a completely different growing season. We also had a good harvest of Chinese cabbage and pak choi," Coen says. Currently, all TB&S vegetables come from Dutch soil. In the winter months, supply is supplemented with production in Portugal and, as a backup, the company also grows organic pointed cabbage and purple pointed cabbage (Violetti) in Spain.
What is new is that TB&S is building ten houses, each with four bedrooms, on its own property for migrant workers. "It will be a wonderful project. It took us two years to secure the permit, but we finally succeeded," says Coen. The company is also working hard on automating its harvesting, though not without challenges. "For example, pointed cabbage is a fragile crop. Eventually, this will certainly be automated, but it will take time and money."
For more information:
Coen Swager
TB&S
Vronermeerweg 1
1834 AX Sint Pancras
+31 (0) 6 53 49 84 60
[email protected]
www.spit skool.com
www.violetti.nl