At the end of June, the last of the yellow zucchini’s were removed from the greenhouse. Now, Jan is busy cleaning up the rest of his greenhouse. The cultivating is done, but not only for the year, but for good. “We have always provided top quality products to supermarkets, but this year the product was shipped without my full support of it.”
Jan van Vliet, photo: Van Nature
The cause? Mainly, the well-known employee problem. “A zucchini cultivation is very labor intensive, and you work on it seven days a week. Which is fine when the quality and the price are right, but not if the quality is less then optimal due to rope- and shed damage, among others. Also, the main yellow variety that we cultivated did not perform as well as in previous years with quality problems as a result. Although this is also the case for many fellow growers.”
Up until Easter, the prices were reasonable, but after that, the market collapsed. “Unfortunately, price wise it didn’t work out after that. Which is a shame because we did produce a record amount.”
There is no financial necessity to rent out the greenhouse, Jan emphasizes. “We were PlanetProof-certified so cultivation can take place, according to the current requirements. The greenhouse is equipped with the most modern technologies, as can be seen on the pictures from the real estate agent. A future grower will lack nothing. There are a modern heating installation, a water technical installation and all other technologies necessary for a good cultivation are present.”
Jan, 63 years old, says goodbye to growing for now, but growing old is not in his plan. “First, the greenhouse needs to be completely cleaned out. Then, I will take a few months off to figure out where to go from here.”
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