Every month, the Dutch province of North Brabant expresses its appreciation by awarding the agrofoodpluim to a leading and inspiring entrepreneur in the agro food sector. Aquaponics has been developed mainly in America and Australia over the last fifteen years. Entrepreneur Jos Hakkenes: "Blue Acres designs and produces sustainable vegetable cultivation systems since 2015, which did not take off very well in the Netherlands. In the system, fish produce the manure for vegetable crops, which in turn cleans the water to create a circular ecosystem."
The company also works with the Stichting Duurzame Kost, thus offering labor opportunities for people with disabilities. Blue Acres is a socially responsible company with a sustainable, innovative and circular product as well as high ambitions. Anne-Marie Spierings: "Brabant wants to be a leader in sustainable and innovative agro food. That calls for devising and the implementation of new ideas. I am therefore proud of Brabant entrepreneurs like Jos Hannekes who see new opportunities and make them a success."
Water consumption
Hakkenes: "We believe the future of agro food sector is circular, smarter, healthier and with little or no burden on nature and the environment. The aquaponics system does not use pesticides, it uses the most biological crop protection methods and has a water consumption of 10% to the current consumption in horticulture. Blue Acres itself builds the systems as much as possible with recycled products from the food industry, one of their ambitions in the future is to use only recycled products in that production."
From system to lettuce
So far, the largest consumer is formed by restaurants that buy products from the demo-greenhouse or companies that want to have a system installed. However, you can also come to the demo-greenhouse if you just want to buy only one head of lettuce, or want to know more about it. Blue Acres also wants to respond to other opportunities in the agro food sector and the Brabant area: "We would like to develop a modular system that allows us to grow vegetables in vacant pigsties. This will give a new boost to the agro food sector, it will be less of a burden for people and the environment, provide new business opportunities for the farmer as well as healthy, sustainable products that can be enjoyed by the inhabitants of Brabant."