'If the plants had not been planted in time, we would have missed an entire season and would not have been able to start until next year. We have had enormous support from all suppliers who made sure we could finish in time," according Frank Coppens, director of Van den Elzen Plants, which, as a thank you for this effort, made a beautiful photo shoot.
On March 4, 2019, the grower bought 43 hectare of land in greenhouse horticulture area Siberië in Maasbree. Not even 4 months later, on June 1, 2019, the raspberry plants were planted on the 25 hectare large field. Basins were also constructed, and a start was made with the construction of a shed with water technique.
Now that work has finished, phase 1 is over for Van den Elzen Plants. Frank: "In the coming years, we will also realize greenhouses.We will start at the other end of the plot and slowly work towards the field with raspberry plants. We will also build a refrigerator to store the plants until delivery to the breeders."
Housing on own terrain
Building houses for labor immigrants is also scheduled. "In total, we have 500 labor immigrants working for us at the moment. We can house 20 percent ourselves, the rest is subcontracted. In the future, we would like to have more control ourselves, and prefer to keep proportions in balance. Housing labor immigrants is an increasingly difficult challenge. We have to work hard to be sure that the people who work well, come back every year. Luckily we have a group of loyal people that keep coming back. Every year, there are new employees. We prefer to recruit ourselves, so we can build a real connection with the people."
For more information:
Van den Elzen Plants 
+31 (0)413 - 216 200
[email protected]
www.vandenelzenplants.com
