Quote 500 lists new growers and breeders:
Breeders and growers amongst Holland's richest
Dutch business and lifestyle magazine Quote has again made a list with the 500 richest people in The Netherlands. And guess what? The number of entrepreneurs from the greenhouse and horticulture industry that made it to the Dutch equivalent of the Forbes 500 again saw an increase.
Piet Mazereeuw of Enza Zaden is still the richest Dutch breeder. Over the last year he saw his capital increase with 50 million euros to a grand total of 310 million euros. He climbed from the 68th to the 61st position on the listing of the richest Dutch.
Positions 194 to 196 are occupied by the seed breeders of Rijk Zwaan. Seedsmen Anton van Doornmalen, Ben Tax and Maarten Zwaan are listed with a capital of 115 million euros each.
Sisters Annie and Margriet Beekenkamp of Beekenkamp Packaging & Beekenkamp young plants share a capital of of 105 million euro and are ranked as the 209th richest Dutch.
New on the list and ranked on place 264 is Piet Bakker of Van Iperen. The horticultural supplier is back on the list and has an estimated capital of 90 million euro. Other suppliers on the list are Peter and Paul Koppert of Koppert Biological Systems. They climbed from position 482 to 447 with an estimated capital of 60 million euro. Not bad if you compare it with their capital of 43 million euros in 2015.
Seed breeders Jan Albert de Jong of Bejo Zaden (58 million euro) and Simon Groot of East-West Seed (54 million euro) are new on the list.
But it are not just breeders and suppliers who made some money in the Dutch horticulture industry.
Vegetable young plant propagator John van der Klugt of Wayland Developments is ranked on the 314th position with a capital of 80 million euros.
Other millionaires with green fingers are brothers Cor and Dirk van der Kaaij of Redstar (627th ranking, €43 million), tomato grower Theo van Vliet of CombiVliet (685th ranking, €39 million), tomato grower John Harting of Harting Holland (804th ranking, €32 million) and strawberry grower Will Beekers of Beekers Berries (821st ranking, €31 million).
And last but not least: Jan Hulsen and Huub Voorhuis of Oerlemans Packaging, who are listed on the 890 & 896 position with a capital of 29 million each.
In the overview of the richest families of the Netherlands, two more seed breeders are represented. The sale of their vegetable seed business to Monsanto in 2008, made the De Ruiter family one of the richest in Holland; in 2016 they are ranked as the 14th richest family, with a total capital of 550 million euros.
The Beemsterboer family of Bejo Zaden are ranked as the 44th richest family of Holland, with a capital of 195 million euros.