Germany: Fire destroys Gimperlein's greenhouse, Koppert Cress helps colleague grower

A major fire caused serious damage to German greenhouse grower Bio-Maintalkresse. The cress grower's nursery is not expected to take up production for the important Easter period. Luckily the Dutch growers of Koppert Cress where available to support their German colleagues by supplying their customers with cress from Holland.

With an arceage of 0.75 hectare Bio-Maintalkresse nursery used to deliver 35,000 boxes of organic cress to the German market daily. The cress was marketed under German retailer REWE's organic label.

The Gimperlein family with Stijn & Rob Baan at the Fruit Logistica last week

Ironically grower Elmar Gimperlein himself is a member of the local fire department. He saw how his colleagues tried for several hours to get the fire under control. They even had to return because the screen material reignited the fire. The damage is estimated at a couple million euro. Not just because of the damage but also due to production loss. The company is expected to be out of production for two to three months.