Working as a Rijk Zwaan product development manager in countries like Japan, South Korea, Malaysia and Thailand, Wim Damsteegt got to know the Southeast Asian vegetable industry. Later he started his own company in Thailand, selling growing media from BVB Substrates to Thai growers. "I literally imported a 20 ft. container with growing media, dropped it in my backyard in the city centre of Bangkok and started to distribute it by car to Thai growers. That is how I learned the Thai industry up close."
Thanida Anantakul ( Dutch Greenery), Gerard Hulisz ( Rijk Zwaan) Wim Damsteegt (Dutch Greenery ) and Johan van Gelederen of BVB Substrates at the 2015 Horti Asia in Bangkok last week.
Dutch Greenery
17 years later, Damsteegt is the proud owner of Dutch Greenery; a company that supplies greenhouse technology, starting materials, growing supplies and seeds. They recently opened a new state-of-the-art warehouse in Thailand. As well as this they have their own demo greenhouse in Pak Chong where Thai growers are welcome to see variety and technology trials.
Construction of a 1.5 hectare production site for hydroponic Thai vegetables.
Dutch Greenery serves Thai growers that are mostly active in the field of protected cultivation of lettuce. "We are the main distributor of Rijk Zwaan lettuce varieties", Damsteegt said. "Amongst our customers, lettuce is the most popular crop. In Thai horticulture industry, most growers produce it with simple hydroponic systems and now and then NFT is installed. Simple self made systems that require low investments are the most popular to date."
Hydroponic lettuce farm
"You have Thai growers from 200 square meters to 6 hectares, the industry is getting larger. But still the technical level of Thai horticulture is very low and not well developed, there is room for a lot of improvement."
Low tech
Like every year, Damsteegt exhibited at the Horti Asia trade show in Bangkok. He was present to meet his local customers. The technology displayed in his booth is very simple and low tech. "We focus on the regular Thai growers, and they are not ready to invest in high end technology. Some companies at this show offer high end technology, in my opinion that is a bit too soon as yet."
Umbrella Vent greenhouse built by Dutch Greenery
"40 percent of our customers have built their own low cost hydroponic systems from blue plastic pipework. They use cheap foam as a growing media and start growing. They are not interested in investing in a lot in expensive technology, and I do not think that this will change in the next five years. "
Seedlings in BVB growing media.
Demo greenhouses
Dutch Greenery also builds greenhouse structures from the Indian greenhouse builders, Greenspan. They offer a few types of greenhouse designs for different types of cultivation, like Multispan Sawtooth, Multispan Umbrella Vent and Multispan Pad and Fan.
One of the Demo greenhouses of Dutch Greenery in Pak Chong
"Our customers can visit our demo houses in Pakchong to see all the greenhouse designs that we can offer. As well as this we help them with the construction. Together with our team we can build a greenhouse of 400 square meters in four days."
For more information:
Dutch GreeneryWim Damsteegt
dutchgreenery@gmail.com
www.dutchgreenery.com