The tomato area in the Netherlands amounts to 1,760 hectare this year. Eighty-five per cent of that is sold by growers associations. Of the total volume, five per cent is sold at auction. The other tomatoes are sold via direct sales on a weekly basis, in particular to export companies, Arne van Aalst, general manager of Prominent, explained during the Tomato Conference in Antwerp.
Nearly 90% of Dutch tomatoes are exported
900 million kilo in 2016
In the year 2000 the Dutch tomato area amounted to 1,133 hectare. Sixteen years later this has increased by 55 per cent. Volume has nearly doubled in those years. In 2000 that was still 520 million kilo, but for 2016 a yield of 900 million kilo is estimated. Growers association Prominent has 28 members and an area of 301 hectares. The sales of Prominent are through Cooperative DOOR. Van Aalst: “It is remarkable that between 2010 and 2015 there is very little difference in area, a small growth. The number of companies producing tomatoes, however, has declined by 40 and the average area per grower went from five to six hectares.”
Arne van Aalst.
Growth in specialties and organic
In 2015 almost 90 per cent of Dutch tomatoes were exported. The most important buyers are Germany (44%), the United Kingdom (15%) and Italy (7%). Van Aalst expects cultivation companies to grow even larger in future. “In addition, the growth in specialties will continue to increase, and organic tomatoes are still becoming more important as well. Growers will start to use more and more sustainable energy sources such as geothermal energy, and development will go to energy neutral production.” www.prominent-tomatoes.nl