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'Try to distinguish yourself in the market'

27 August 2021

"The cultivation of chicory consists of so many different facets; it never gets boring," says Gerwin de Vries from Espel (Fl.). Together with brother-in-law Hugo Jongejan, he runs chicory nursery LOF – an all-round company that, in his own words, "does everything between the seed and the chicory on the plate' is in his own hands.

Bayer Crop Science spoke with De Vries about making choices and about entrepreneurship. "Look outside the two barriers of your company more often and try to distinguish yourself in the market. That way you create a future for your company," he urges young colleagues.

When did you know you wanted to join the company?
"Very early actually. As a child I always wanted to go outside. Out into the country, into the barn. It is thanks to my parents that I went to school for a long time, otherwise I would have entered the company early. "The affinity with chicory cultivation has always been there. My father took care of that. He built the company. From a small arable farm with 12 hectares to an all-round, internationally operating chicory company. We are building on this as the third generation. That awareness is very strong.”

What have been the biggest changes since joining the company?
"The biggest change was a while ago, in 2010. I had only been with the company for a few years. The old nursery needed to be replaced. I wanted it to be much bigger and more modern. My father had already indicated that he was no longer involved. "You have to do what you want now," he said. That was a kind of turning point. It got really serious then, the more it was also about an amount with six zeros ... That felt like a leap of faith."

"That feeling was also there when we decided shortly afterwards to take sales completely into our own hands. You can no longer rely on the secure sales of an auction or growers' association. You have to do it yourself. And that was mainly in the beginning calling around a lot and visiting a lot of potential customers. That was exciting, but also gave us a lot of energy. We then also started working under the new name LOF. With that we try to distinguish ourselves in the market. In terms of quality and service. We also agreed not to sell anything below 50 cents per kilo. Our product simply has too much value for that. This has been remarkably well accepted in the market. In 10 years we have only had to deposit a small batch behind the shed once. ''

It seems like almost everything has gone well. Were there also setbacks?
"Yes, there certainly were. For example, we experimented for a number of years with cultivation beds of one meter wide for pen cultivation. That should yield more and more uniform pens, or so the idea was. We lasted for 3 years – and We also invested a lot in it. But it turned out to be no success. We turned everything back, which cost us a few cents..."

Where do you want to go with the company in the coming years?
"I find that a difficult question... A lot of things have more or less come our way naturally. And we have picked them up. That is the well-known story of seeing and seizing opportunities. In the coming years we want to further optimize processes and And possibly something will come our way again that makes us think: we just have to do that! For example, a few years ago we developed our own grow kit. Just a nice box with 9 chicory roots in it. That's not a huge blockbuster, but the generates positive attention for our company and for our product.”

What do you see as the biggest bottleneck for the future?
"The labor factor is becoming an increasing bottleneck in our industry. This applies to both the weeding work in pen cultivation and the sorting and packaging of chicory. People who want to do this work are becoming increasingly difficult to find. Moreover, hourly wages continue to rise. We are therefore constantly looking for ways to automate processes, such as sorting chicory by weight."

"The availability of land is also becoming increasingly tight. Every year we contract about 650 hectares of chicory roots, almost all of them in the Flevopolders. The soil here is superb and that also applies to the growers. As a result, we have top-class starting material, both for export. as for our own nurseries. In addition, we have cultivation close to home, so that we can monitor it and make adjustments if necessary. We are therefore very happy to stay in the Polder, but that is becoming increasingly difficult with the rising rents. Bulb and seed potato farmers offer a lot of money for good plots, something we are increasingly unable to compete with.”

How do you see the future?
"Our company is in good shape at the moment, so we can take a beating. Still, I expect more obstacles in the coming years – and also more annoyances, especially from The Hague and Brussels. When I read the future visions of all those policymakers, then I get the feeling that they would rather no longer have farmers in the Netherlands, so I stick to the idea that people will continue to eat anyway, including chicory.”

What do you think is the best part of your job?
"That is the great diversity. Chicory is a two-year cultivation, in which all kinds of things can go wrong and right. That makes it challenging and it never gets boring. The pen cultivation, the chicory nursery, sorting and packaging, trade and export; it's all equally beautiful."

Finally: what advice would you like to give starting colleagues?
"My most important tip is: try to distinguish yourself with your product. Build a convincing story around it and go for quality at all times. Top products ensure satisfied customers. And that works so much better; for everyone within the company. And further: look "Sometimes you see how it should be done and sometimes how it should not be done. You can learn something from both."

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