“There is a high demand for British tomatoes,” says grower Phil Pearson. “Our customers don’t just want British tomatoes in the summer, they also want them in the winter. Moving to year-round production of tomatoes presents a number of challenges."
“I changed my mind when I went to the launch of GrowWise Center, the Philips research facility in Eindhoven where light recipes are optimized, and saw that LED technology had taken an enormous leap. I knew that this was what we needed,” says Pearson. He became convinced that a full LED installation was the future.
“The LEDs make a huge difference. You can almost watch the plants growing as you look at them. If you normally grow in December, due to of the lack of light you would only get about half a flower a day and half a truss of tomatoes a week. Now we are getting almost one flower a day and over one truss per week.”
“A lot of people have been trying year-round production of tomatoes in the UK for years but the economics have just not made sense. We are expecting a five-year payback on our investment and we are keeping our customers happy. That’s going to give us a big competitive advantage in our market.”
For more information
Philips Horticulture LED Solutions
Daniela Damoiseaux
Global MarCom Manager
High Tech Campus 45, Eindhoven
HTC 45, Ground Floor, PO Box 80020, 5600JM Eindhoven
T: +31 6 31 65 29 69
