"Different shading products solution for climate problems"

Three years ago, Mexican company FreshMex had problems with the climate in their glass greenhouse. The large amount of radiation caused drought. A combination of three different shading products proved to be the solution. "The humidity is higher, the climate improves tremendously, we have an earlier setting and the quality of the harvest increases enormously", grower Manuel Magdaleno says.

FreshMex is one of the most innovative greenhouse farms in Mexico. The company of 7.5 hectares exports peppers and tomatoes to Canada and the USA. Since three years, they cooperate actively with Royal Brinkman. Royal Brinkman is active in Mexico for over 15 years. To further develop the strategy 'local for local', the company opened a local office in the Mexican state Querétaro in 2014. Four employees - including branch manager Ben Sosef - regulate the sale and transport of products to growers throughout Mexico from this facility.

As a one-stop shop Royal Brinkman sells all products that require a producer for its daily operations. But one of the main products has to be the range of shading agents and diffuse coatings. The high temperatures and great amount of light radiation ensure that there is a great need for these products in the Mexican market. Shading agents specialist Richard Hagedoorn (working for Royal Brinkman Netherlands) therefore saw it was necessary to go to explore this market with Royal Brinkman’s branch manager in Mexico, Ben Sosef.

Richard Hagedoorn: "My main goal for this trip was to meet local growers and to train local colleagues. This way I want to make sure that they know exactly how to apply the products, so they can achieve optimal results. Therefore we have made a tour along growers scattered across the country. What I particularly noticed is that the market is spread out in Mexico; there is no central horticultural area such as for example is the case in the Netherlands and Spain. Furthermore, the greenhouses are more modern. This offers growers good opportunities for using shading agents and diffuse coatings."

During their tour Ben and Richard visited different companies, including FreshMex. This is one of the most innovative greenhouse farms in Mexico. The company of 7.5 hectares exports peppers and tomatoes to Canada and the USA. Ben: "Growing Manager Manuel Magdaleno of FreshMex approached me three years ago. The company then had problems with the climate in the glass greenhouse. The large amount of radiation caused drought. We decided to start a test with different shading agents to influence the greenhouse climate. "

Meanwhile, this test has become a strong strategy which ensures that FreshMex achieves better harvest results. Manuel Magdaleno: "Together with Ben we constantly refined the combination of the various products. I now make a combination of three different products: D-GREE to cool in warm periods, Q4 White to protect the plants from too much sunlight and D-FUSE for optimal use of the available sunlight in cooler periods. In this way we can create the optimal conditions for the crop throughout the year. And with result: the humidity is higher, the climate improves tremendously, we have an earlier setting and the quality of the harvest increases enormously! "

Ben Sosef sees many opportunities for Mexican growers: "Currently, growers use mainly chalk products such as ShadeFix (powder) and Q3 White (pasta); diffuse coatings are still relatively unknown in Mexico. I would like to let growers see which advantages these products offer and help them to achieve better results ".

For more information:
Ben Sosef
Royal Brinkman
t: +52 (1) 442 111 9396
ben@royalbrinkman.com.mx
www.royalbrinkman.com.mx