On Geestweg in Naaldwijk, Netherlands, GrowOrganiX prepares for a new season of growing organic hot fruit vegetable plants at the end of September. It will be the second season for the young company, and it would have been close to being the first.
Looking for a greenhouse to fulfill its big ambitions, it finally ended up in Naaldwijk. On 1 August 2023, they started in the greenhouses formerly occupied by Plantise, and between 10 and 15 October it was already time for sowing.
"We made a flying start and learned a lot in our first year," Wim van Marrewijk looks back together with managing director Sion Eichmüller on the eve of a new breeding season. He laughs: "We also learned more in the first season than we cared to."
Fast into production
Anyone considering that the time between getting the key and the start of the breeding season was so short understands that it was a challenge. Getting a 4.3-hectare nursery operational again in a short time is no mean feat. "We used our first year to analyze all the processes. Meanwhile, we were also 'just' in production, after a preparation of three times nothing."
Next season, the company, formed from a joining of forces between the family-run companies Van Marrewijk of Maassluis and Max Schwarz of Villigen, Switzerland, plans to make a number of changes. Sion: "We want to be the best in this field. That is our right to exist."
Cost
In Naaldwijk, next winter, the propagation of organic starting material for tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and aubergines is once again happening. A lot of hard work has gone into laying down the processes in protocols. Wim: "In the first half of our first season, being the best didn't always work out. In the second half, it went a lot better and we also got compliments from customers."
Wim has noticed that in the vegetable plant world, growers are extra critical of the plants they get. He himself was the same when he worked for an organic grower. "While, in the end, there is always a bit of nature at play as well, even in the propagation process. Not everything is completely controllable."
He says his eyes were opened last season. "I was surprised to see that one day more or less of propagation can make a difference of seven to eight euro cents in the cost price of a plant. Within the whole chain, plant breeders work with the smallest margins. It is important that our cost price as plant breeders does remain realistic, especially now that there are substantial cost increases with regard to new rootstocks."
About that cost price, GrowOrganiX wants to be very transparent. "Also what the choice of one rootstock or another does to the final cost price varies. But also how many plants you put on a square meter has an impact."
Full floors
For a nursery, whether organic or conventional, it is important to have the greenhouses as full as possible during the year. Besides hot vegetable plants for the local market, GrowOrganiX, which has certifications Skal, Naturland and Bio Suisse, therefore also raises plants for other markets.
"After the Dutch season, we continue with warm vegetable plants for Switzerland, for example, for a bit longer. In Switzerland, Austria, and also parts of Germany, organic cultivation is growing a lot faster than here. Furthermore, we are growing sweet potato starting material and plan to produce certified organic snack vegetable plants, with their own varieties as well as a distinctive flavor."
Real-time track&trace
To take new steps, and make the desired improvements, GrowOrganiX has several vacancies open. At the nursery, they would like to be able to track and trace plants in real time. This is going to generate a lot of data, which they would like a data analyst to work on. "Reliability is one of the most important things in our industry. With more insight into our (cultivation) processes, we are going to improve this."
Soon, when the first plants are sown and in the greenhouse, growers will also stop by again to see their ordered plants grow. What will they see from the changes made? "Besides better traceability, more uniformity in a batch of plants is also our focus. We have also invested in the greenhouse so that processes that can work automatically, also work automatically."
High-tech propagation
In the slightly longer term, GrowOrganiX's ambition is to grow to another location. "High-tech propagation of organic vegetable plants in a new greenhouse is our goal," Wim points out. Sion: "But then last year all the cards started to fall at once in the right direction and we started quickly here in Naaldwijk. We are not easily satisfied with where we are. We are bloodthirsty and full of passion for organic."
For more information:
GrowOrganiX
[email protected]
www.groworganix.nl/nl