A Dutch municipality with an average of thirty degrees Celsius throughout the year. It may sound like a fairy tale, but there is such a (special) municipality: Bonaire. And just like here, they love vegetables in the Dutch Caribbean. Reason for Arie Boers to set up a horticulture company on the island a few years ago and he has now got to know the market there well. He tells us more about it.
Arie with tropical spinach
Competing with airfreight
With his company Bon Tera, Arie wants to offer products that have added value. In other words: fresh. “We compete with sensitive products or products that are expensive because they have to be flown in. We deliberately choose products such as basil, mint, herbs, snack cucumbers, and mixed lettuce, that normally come by plane and therefore have a higher price per kilo.”
Of course, one condition is that the vegetables can be grown in Bonaire. "With constant high temperatures, not everything can be cultivated. Actually, there's more that can't be cultivated than the other way around.”
Bon Tera also offers alternative products such as Malabar spinach as an alternative to the “regular” spinach. "And you can also cultivate a product that is normally not offered here," says Arie. “For example, asparagus beans, which is available here as a frozen product, but not fresh. We see quite some demand for asparagus beans and maybe we will add more Surinamese vegetables.”
Always have supply
By focusing on various products, Bon Tera ensures that there is always supply, which allows the grower to spread the risk. In the Netherlands, a grower can fill a section with, for example, snack cucumbers during the season, knowing that after crop rotation the market will still be filled with product from other suppliers. On Bonaire this works differently, because Bon Tera is the only local supplier, they must be able to supply snack cucumbers year-round. "We're getting better in regulating supply," says Arie.
Dealing with the impact of the coronavirus
Resorts are important customers for Bon Tera. But the coronavirus suddenly caused a slowdown, tourists suddenly stopped coming on holiday and Arie saw a large part of his sales evaporate, especially the normal cucumbers. The hospitality industry did not buy them anymore, which means sales decreased.
“We managed to fill that gap by putting together a package with five to six products for a good price. Especially at the beginning of the pandemic that worked well. With a lot fewer tourists we had to look more at the local people and that has worked out well.”
In a small market, you can quickly see the changes in the number of people in the number of sales. Because more or fewer tourists is clearly noticeable in a population of 20,000 people. This remains a challenge, to deal with it well.
Mixed lettuce in the greenhouse
Ingenuity
The company managed to deal with the impact of the coronavirus by being ingenious. "So, we're keeping the package," Arie laughs," although, fortunately, we see that demand from the hospitality industry is picking up again, even though it's with ups and downs. Because despite the success of the mix package during the pandemic, we really need the hospitality industry. The combination of hospitality, door-to-door, and supermarkets gives us a varied target group and is necessary to sell enough."
Meanwhile, they have been at it for about two years, which means companies come to Arie earlier for their vegetables. "We consider that a positive signal."
For more information:
Bon Tera Bonaire
Arie Boers
Facebook page
info@bontera.nl
tel +599 7003497