Entrepreneurs Borbely Sandor and Kovacs Robert started out in 2005 with two hectares of butter lettuce in the Hungarian town of Jaszfenyszaru and just eight years later they had evolved into a horticultural giant with 15 hectares of lettuce specialities. Undeterred by the locals’ conservative eating habits, they introduced products such as iceberg lettuce, lollo, oak leaf, cos, Salanova®, endive, frisée and radicchio. The young growers had high ambitions but knew that they could not achieve them alone. After all, to change deeply rooted eating habits you need support from food wholesalers. And to produce such a wide assortment, technical knowledge of varieties is crucial. Rijk Zwaan acted as facilitator: Jörg Werner, business development manager and Kamill Tóth, chain manager for Hungary, saw the opportunities and set up a chain project.
Rijk Zwaan provides successful chain collaboration in Eastern Europe
Entrepreneurs Borbely Sandor and Kovacs Robert started out in 2005 with two hectares of butter lettuce in the Hungarian town of Jaszfenyszaru and just eight years later they had evolved into a horticultural giant with 15 hectares of lettuce specialities. Undeterred by the locals’ conservative eating habits, they introduced products such as iceberg lettuce, lollo, oak leaf, cos, Salanova®, endive, frisée and radicchio. The young growers had high ambitions but knew that they could not achieve them alone. After all, to change deeply rooted eating habits you need support from food wholesalers. And to produce such a wide assortment, technical knowledge of varieties is crucial. Rijk Zwaan acted as facilitator: Jörg Werner, business development manager and Kamill Tóth, chain manager for Hungary, saw the opportunities and set up a chain project.
