Dutch Plant Force has lost about 1 million plants that were ready for delivery as starting material for growing giant sequoia grass due to the severe weather in Spain.
Production for Dutch Plant Force was carried out entirely by the Spanish company SRI.
SRI is a horticultural company founded by two young entrepreneurs, Jos Roodenburg and Ben Stam, in 2023 with a branch in Picanya, just south of Valencia.
These 2 hectares of greenhouses had been completely refurbished and modernized with borrowed money and were full of young plants of the Mammoth grass crop on 29 October, the day of the disaster. These had all been sold and would be delivered to customers in the coming weeks.
Crowdfunding
The delivery could not take place due to a massive tidal wave. This not only washed away more than 1,500,000 plants but also the greenhouses, machinery, stock of transport carts, soil, etc were all badly destroyed or lost.
Jos and Ben and Dutch Plant Force have only one ambition and that is to resume the production of the Mammoth grass as soon as possible after repairing the greenhouses and still be able to deliver these plants to the customers.
All SRI staff have offered to start cleaning and repairing the premises and greenhouses this week free of charge. The aim is to be fully operational again within a month and able to supply plants from 15 December.
To support the two young entrepreneurs, Dutch Plant Force has started a crowdfunding campaign with the aim of compensating somewhat for this gigantic financial setback for both men: https://www.doneeractie.nl/actie/97548.
Source: Dutch Plant Force