''We wanted to know what effects different light types have on contents and flavour.''
At strawberry grower Brookberries in Beldfeld, there is a cheerful buzz this morning. In the canteen, a mixed crowd is tucking into coffee and home-made dishes. HAS students are there working on their research. These are peak days in the strawberry season. Marcel Dings founded the company 20 years ago. Dings: "Work atmosphere is important to me. I like to see our employees go into the greenhouse with a smile. If they feel comfortable they perform better. At our staff parties, we play Limburg carnival hits as well as Polish and Romanian music. That creates a connection. We realise all too well that people are our capital".
Since 2008, he and his partner Peter van den Eertwegh have expanded Brookberries into a 20-hectare business, five of which have supplementary lighting. This allows “year-round” cultivation: including the winter months and early spring. Growers' association Fossa Eugenia handles sales. The Netherlands is by far the leading producer of greenhouse strawberries. With cultivation under LED light, Brookberries is a pioneer: there are no other projects of this size worldwide. Customer focus and customisation are keywords at the company. People can order here until the evening. From the Westland they are quicker in England, but to Germany we easily gain half a day in 'freshness'.
LIOF urged us as growers to work together more years ago. Working together on the regional vision for strong greenhouse horticulture. Following on from that, Brookberries entered into two knowledge trajectories with LIOF. The first trajectory is a health project in cooperation with Maastricht University. We are getting older in our part of the world, and more and more people are concerned with health. Strawberries and other soft fruits are in the spotlight. But health claims for food are tricky. I wanted to know what healthy substances are in strawberries. The research showed that for us, the focus should be on vitamin C."
The second knowledge question concerns big data. "With the knowledge from the first track, we wanted to investigate what differences we see when one variety plants under three different light types. Students from the HAS are now collecting data on taste at different stages of cultivation. They do this through taste panels as well as a taste model from Wageningen University. They have also measured fruit hanging in test trays. As growers, we know that if many fruits are hanging, the flavour is less. To now back this up with data, the planting results are combined with the data from the taste tests.
Data are hot. They are becoming increasingly important for growing as well as marketing products. But it is also quite an issue to determine who data actually belongs to. When do you still speak of knowledge sharing and when does it become copying? We have become more critical in this respect. We, and that applies to all growers affiliated to Fossa Eugenia, have always used data, for instance by planning on the basis of previous productions. In fact, our scale demands that we work more with data to support production. To know even more specifically when and to what extent we need to bring water, temperature and nutrition. But as useful as this support is, the “vent” is still leading. You will still have to go into the greenhouse and assert your green fingers.
The experience with LIOF is very valuable to me. We might have been able to do it ourselves, but the processes with LIOF worked like a flywheel. They bring parties together and encourage entrepreneurs to think about the future. The right guidance in developing your company's vision is an added value. If you realise that as a company, you are ready for such a knowledge trajectory and all the pieces of the puzzle fall together."