It was about four years ago that Rien Kamman and Ernst van Bruggen of Source.ag first visited a high-tech greenhouse, at Agro Care, and got into conversation with Kees van Veen. Being close to the grower has been important for the fast-growing AI company ever since. Now that it has moved into the North American market, the close relationship with local growers remains very important for the software developers.
"That's what has made us successful," Tomas Geurts knows. He joined Source.ag in February 2022, just when the first growers started working with the Amsterdam-based company's AI solutions. In recent years, he has managed to combine his experience in software development with knowledge about grower practices.
"From the moment growers start working with Source, we make sure they get optimal value from our software. Sometimes that takes some time getting used to. That makes sense. I recognise it from when I started using new navigation software. Every time I was stubborn and thought I knew the route better, I drove into a traffic jam or was delayed by roadworks. It is up to us to ensure that growers can quickly get used to our AI solutions and feel comfortable to trust them."
Early adopters
As general manager, Tomas will manage the Source team in the North American market, from the Chicago office, but mainly by visiting a lot of grower sites. "We can really add value by having a local presence and by merging our knowledge with the knowledge of the people on the ground. The North American market is similar to Europe in some ways, but there are definitely differences too."
Over the past year, Tomas and colleagues have already been regularly visiting growers in North America. "We have been working with early adopters here since the end of last year," he says. As in the Netherlands, in Europe, and through some Dutch growers also in North Africa, Source.ag wants to give growers the opportunity to learn about and start using the company's AI solutions. "With our Customer Success Team, we guide our growers. In North America, I have also built such a team."
Empowering expert growers to do more with less
For Source.ag, the North American market is a clear growth market. "There is a lot of growth in greenhouse development. Land to build on is often plentiful. Companies typically have the financial opportunities. Many companies we have spoken to in North America struggle with finding enough skilled growers. We often hear this come back as one of the biggest challenges North American companies face. We can offer those companies a solution that allows them to further scale their business."
Each grower and each region has its own unique challenges, Tomas knows. "One company would like to make the existing grower more scalable, so that this grower can manage multiple greenhouses. On the other hand, another grower is looking for options to control certain processes more autonomously, creating time to focus on other processes. And then you also see that there are growers who have a lot of trouble with yield prediction. We can help growers with that too."
The local North American team of Source.ag
Yieldforecast
A clear difference with the North American market, especially compared to the market in the Netherlands, is that growers are much more often also a sales organization themselves. "The dynamic between production and sales is different in the North American market. Because of this, the role of yield forecasting is even more crucial. There are great opportunities for our solution Source Cultivate to help growers know what to expect in terms of harvest, or to better align the different season in terms of production. Personally, I'm very excited about that."
When visiting growers in Mexico, where high-tech glass greenhouses can now be found alongside low- and mid-tech ones, Tomas was struck by how much value the Plant App, with which growers do crop registrations, can already add.
"Doing registrations with the app on their iPad turned out to be really groundbreaking for them. I was quite impressed by that. Our AI solutions can add value for growers in different types of greenhouses."
Food deserts
Source.ag's focus is on software for tomato, pepper and cucumber growers. On a visit to Chigaco, Tomas noticed that the range of vegetables on offer in the supermarket is really different from that at home, in the Netherlands.
"The quality is sometimes lower, the supply is more limited and the price of fruit and vegetables is higher. That offers so many opportunities, especially if you also consider that there are 40 million people in the US who don't have access to fresh fruit and vegetables because they live in a food desert."
According to Tomas, one of the growth paths for Source.ag in the North American market is therefore also to offer AI solutions right at the start of a new greenhouse farm.
Learning from local growers
At the Canadian Greenhouse Conference, where Source.ag is an exhibitor for the first time, Tomas and CEO Rien Kamman hope to speak to many growers. "Our main goal is to introduce growers to who we are. And the advantage of our local presence is that we can then visit the grower more easily to see what AI solutions we can offer for his specific situation. I expect we will learn a lot from this as well."
Knowledge with which the software developers can continue to develop from the headquarters in Amsterdam. "Our job is to properly translate the challenges of the North American market to our product developers in Amsterdam. We will continue to visit them regularly, and vice versa, they will also come to North America. This is already happening."
Source.ag's software developers have already visited North American growers. Just as once, less than four years ago, Rien and Ernst did to Kees van Veen of Agro Care. Things moved quickly after that, with the latest milestone being the local North American branch.
New CCO
Matthias Stammen has joined the team as new Chief Commercial Officer. Stammen brings extensive experience in driving commercial success for companies across Europe, the US, and Asia. He previously held key leadership roles at the food service company Choco and the supply chain solutions provider Forto, where he was instrumental in their journey to unicorn status.
For more information:
Source.ag
[email protected]
www.source.ag