The billboard of Dutch horticulture? An always cheerful man rapidly approaching seventy years old. It may sound strange, but over the past ten years, Aad Verduijn has led an estimated 15,000 interested parties around Dutch horticulture with World Horti Tours. This is the sector that has stolen his heart. "Every time I drive through the Westland, I enjoy the greenhouses. I think it's absolutely golden to be able to do this."
"There are so many people who don't know what's happening in greenhouse horticulture. They think we're spraying poison in clogs and rubber boots and destroying energy, but the opposite is true: it's top sport. That is sometimes forgotten: people who buy a bunch of chrysanthemums don't think about the long day and the short day, or what thrips can mean in a crop. Growers know that if they're not 100% committed, they might as well stop. 99.9% is not enough in horticulture."
It's this enthusiasm that he conveys to the customers of World Horti Tours. Ten years ago, after a long career on the technical side of horticulture, he found himself, by his own admission, a bit in a slump. A coach had him write down what he was good at. "That wasn't easy, but it turned out that I have knowledge of technology, can chat quite a bit, and enjoy interacting with people." All of that comes into play in Westland Horti Tours, the company he set up in 2015 to give professional tours in horticulture. In addition, he manufactures the Tank Level Indicators, which he developed a few years ago, and works one day a week for technology company MJ-Tech. "That combination is wonderful. I can do a little bit everywhere, help everywhere, and meet people everywhere, because I'm a born talker."
© Westland Hortitours
With Westland Horti Tours, Aad taps into a very international audience. The most famous has been Jack Ma, the Chinese Alibaba founder and multimillionaire. "Most visitors come from Asia, and by far the most from Korea," he says at the cabinet in his office, full of gifts from satisfied visitors. "Students, tourists, and a lot of business-to-business. In school, I thought I didn't need English, and I still speak broken English, but that's still better than when they speak Dutch. And it's getting better because I now know the technical words." But Dutch people also find him. All of them can count on various company visits and Aad's enthusiastic story.
When it comes to horticulture, Aad is overflowing with enthusiasm and pride. "In Westland, you can find some of the best companies in the world when it comes to growing in glass greenhouses and building glass greenhouses. Every detail has been thought of: the smallest bolt, screw, and hook. Can we make the screen cloth stronger or lighter? Can the water supply be more efficient, and can internal transport be safer? Those innovations, that's the best—the CHP, the geothermal energy, the SON-T, and now the LED of recent years. And then you think you have the whole garden in order, and then the next thing comes along: soon the chrysanthemums will come out of the ground. Those growers just keep going. If a grower earns a guilder, he spends a dime. That's the strength of horticulture."
© Westland Hortitours
Aad himself has never worked as a grower. "I wouldn't want to do it. Just manage it. Now you see companies with a guy for the energy, a guy for the cultivation. But those smaller companies still do it all themselves, from purchasing the cutting material to the gas, electricity, substrates, pots..." To be a grower, you have to be born into it, he thinks. "Then they say so much money is being made and there are so many big houses and cars in the Westland. But if you drive there at half past six in the morning, they're already at work. So can it be allowed once in a while?" Moreover, making money? "When I'm busy with tours, I make money. If a baker sells a lot, he has money, and a car salesman too. But as a grower, you could have worked your butt off, and then it yields nothing," he refers to market prices. "You have to be able to handle it. And yet, even when things aren't going well, they manage to survive, and there's always something new. Energy crisis? Horticulture innovates. Then just three screens in the greenhouse. I think it's wonderful."
Despite companies becoming much stricter with visitors to the nursery in recent years, he is also a welcome guest with many growers. Yet sometimes there is criticism. "Verduijn, you teach all those people how to grow," he outlines. "Stop it. I don't even know myself; I've always worked in technology. I tell what's going on." And for horticulture, he's also a billboard. "Just promote us, and promote our product," the growers themselves say. "I'm not saying they sell more tomatoes or chrysanthemums because of me, but when people leave, they say they look at horticulture very differently than when they came in."
© Westland Hortitours
For more information:
Westland Horti Tours
info@westlandhortitours.nl
www.westlandhortitours.nl