Hydroponic growing at a height has given us a competitive advantage in terms of labor recruitment

The cultivation of berries in Huelva is a contemporary success story. The production of Huelva’s strawberries, which started developing as a pioneering project between the late ’50s and early ’60s of the 20th century, has allowed Spain to become the largest producer of this fruit in the European Union, although the true magnitude of this industry in Huelva is evident when looking at the figures it yields. It accounts for almost 97% of Spain’s total harvest, and for approximately 23.8% of the production of this fruit in the EU-27 in the 2020/21 campaign, according to Eurostat data, placing it well ahead of the next largest EU producers, Poland and Germany, with shares of 16.3% and 13.8%, respectively.

DutchPlantin launches retail line Grow.in for small scale and home growers

Professional growers worldwide use the coconut substrates from Dutch Plantin for their soft fruit, vegetable and flower cultivation. If it were up to Wim Roosen, another group will now be added. The new Grow.in brand has been specially developed for the retail and consumer market.

Outside using coco substrates? Nobody else is doing that

There are hardly any areas in the world where coco producer and supplier Dutch Plantin does not deliver. Professional growers worldwide use the coco substrates for their soft fruit, vegetable and flower cultivation. But perhaps the most innovative customer is just around the corner.

Jan van den Elzen from Uden grows – which is unique – tray plants on one hundred percent pure coco. Plus he is the first end user to whom Dutch Plantin in the Netherlands supplies directly loose cocopeat. “A shorter line is not possible.”

We are investing to secure the coco supply

For the second year in a row, the team with Dutch Plantin is building a new factory in India. In addition, the Dutch facilities are being expanded. “The demand for coconut products is increasing worldwide – we’re expecting to reach one million extra grow-bags per year this year,” says Wim Roosen. “Then the pressure on the coco market is high, especially in winter time. With the expansions, we want to avoid supply issues, secure a more sustainable production and depend less on the weather on our production areas.”

For a young guy like me, I need to prove that I am someone they can trust

“We started this company in January of 2019, as a subsidiary of Houweling Group and Dutch Plantin, specializing in water treatment and coconut coir,” tells Jake Houweling, 28-year-old manager of Houweling Dutch Plantin in Ontario, Canada. Compared to 2019, the company has grown over 400%. “There’s a lot of demand for our products, and I am excited to meet those demands.”

Webinar series on food safety and the journey from plant to plate

Are you a Horticulture enthusiast eager to learn more about topics related to food safety? HortiTechIndia will hold webinars in which Indian and Dutch experts will tell you more about food safety challenges, opportunities and solutions covering the entire horticulture supply chain.

Blueberry used to be an extensive crop, but is becoming more and more intensive

The blueberry cultivation is growing rapidly around the world, and together with it the demand for coco substrate”, Wim Roosen from Dutch Plantin says. Blueberry used to be an open field crop, but most of the new projects are using hydroponic growing techniques, offering new opportunities and of course new challenges.

Coco coir for cultivating bell peppers? Absolutely!

Most growers in the Netherlands use mineral wool to cultivate their vegetables. Quite strange, if you consider that cultivation on a substrate of coco coir offers many advantages, they thought at Dutch Plantin. Peter Verberne should know: the pepper grower from Horst in Limburg first started experimenting with coco coir several years ago

More stable start of the crop thanks to coco pith

The step into hydroponic growing from soil can seem like a big one with many techniques and investments needed. In Spain, they found a solution to start with the benefits of growing hydroponically, but without the major costs. “By putting coco pith in or on the ground, growers can benefit from a more stable start of their crop”, Wim Roosen with Dutch Plantin says. The company notices a rising demand – from Spain and from other horticultural regions. They’re celebrating by updating their corporate identity this week.

We like coir more and more, it’s is very manageable

Belgian tomato grower Ben Nuyens from Truyenberg Nursery harvested it’s first crop quite early: on the 20th of December. “Maybe a bit early, but that is what we have been used to the last few years,” Nuyens said. “We planted on October the 15th and the plants started rooting in the coir after 3½ weeks.

GroSci 2013 Symposium gathers researchers and growers from around the world

The GroSci 2013 Symposium, that was held June 17-21 in Leiden (The Netherlands), was the perfect opportunity for Dutch Plantin to meet researchers and technical people from all over the world. Topics like water, composts, peat mixtures, peat replacements, peat additives, nutrients, reuse of disposed water often touched our coco peat products. There is still so much to explore and to develop what we can do together.

Soft fruit growers prefer cocopeat that is low in EC, silicon, boron

Dutch Plantin has production locations in Helmond and Boekel in The Netherlands. From these locations many European softfruit growers get this Dutch manufactured loose cocopeat. According to Wim Roosen, many soft fruit growers rely on their coco peat. “We process the raw coconut onto a perfect buffered and rinsed product that has a low EC, is low in silicon and low in boron. These are the requirements that soft fruit growers are looking for.

Growing on substrate has a big future in Kenya

Many growers and staff visited Dutch Plantin at the exhibition in Naivasha. Wim Roosen of Dutch Plantin was there to meet (new) customers and to inform attendees about coco and why Dutch Plantin coco makes the difference. Since rose growers in Kenya have been growing ‘out of the soil’, Dutch Plantin delivers them quite a bit of coco. Coco is very suitable for growing roses because it’s a pure coconut substrate. Several growers in and around Naivasha mix local pumice stone with coco peat from Dutch Plantin. “The result is a good and sustainable substrate on which they can successfully grow for many years”, said Roosen. “Also young rose plants grow very evenly and root quickly on our coco peat. Because of big savings on water and fertilizer the growing on substrate has a big future in Kenya”

UK: Agrii announces new partnership with Dutch Plantin

Agrii is delighted to announce that they are to become National Distributors for Dutch Plantin, the innovative market leaders in the production and supply of coco-peat and coco products.

Established for thirty years, Dutch Plantin is the World’s largest producer of coco-peat, with eleven production sites across Asia, Africa and the Netherlands. Agrii is a leading provider of agronomy services, technology and strategic advice to farmers and growers in the UK.

Spain: More hydroponic soft fruit on coir due to soil disinfection regulations

Coir is a popular growing media, and not only amongst greenhouse growers that deal with tomatoes, peppers or cucumbers. No, in fact, soft fruit growers in Spain are more and more luring toward hydroponic cultivation on coir. According to Wim Roosen from Dutch Plantin, this is due to more restrictions made by the government in regards to soil decontamination and soil disinfection. “Spanish growers that used to grow strawberries in the soil, no longer have all the instruments available to clean there soil after a crop cycle. This is one of the reasons that more growers are interested in growing their fruit on a substrate like coir.”

Slovenia: Lust plants Dutch youngplants in new greenhouse

Slovenia is currently one of the smallest horticultural producers in the EU, but the growers at the greenhouses of Lust have just completed a two hectare expansion plan, bringing their greenhouses to six hectare in total.

Based in Renkovci, in the country’s north-eastern Prekmurje region, Lust planted their new crop in two days last week and with mild weather conditions bringing warmer unseasonal temperatures, head grower Martin Zigo, hopes they might start picking by the end of March.

India: Dutch Plantin crowned ‘Coir pith exporter of the year’

On March the 1st, Dutch Plantin with its headquarters in Boekel (the Netherlands) and Coimbatore (India) was crowned ‘Coir pith exporter of the year’, Initiated by the MSME, The Govt. of India, this award highlights Dutch Plantin as the largest exporter of coir pith products with superior quality.

Siby Joseph, Managing Director of Dutch Plantin in India, was presented this prestigious award by The Hon’ble Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh and the Union Minister for MSME Sri. K.H Muniyappa.

Double layered growbag enables rapid horizontal rooting and uniform drainage

Coir substrates are one of the most popular, if not, the most popular substrates used by growers worldwide. According to Wim Roosen of Dutch Plantin the popularity of the substrate is increasing every year, even in The Netherlands, where stonewool has been the most favoured substrate for decades. Recently Dutch Plantin introduced a new type of slab that was well received amongst dutch growers. A good reason to ask Roosen a few questions and take a look at the physical advantages of the popular substrate.

Is the availability of Cocopeat unlimited?

The horticultural industry is a gigantic user of coir products for substrate us. But how much coir is available? Is the supply unlimited? And which factors play a key role in this respect? Wim Roosen of Dutch Plantin shared some insight into this; they conducted a study on the global availability of coir.

Dutch Plantin presents new video on coir substrate

If you want to get to know how your coir substrate is being produced, have a look at this informational video. It was launched by Dutch Plantin at the Fruit Logistica exhibition in Berlin last month. In less than two minutes it shows how coconuts are being processed into growing media. All the processes are shown; from sun drying to compressing to shipping.

Dutch Plantin offers special growbags for soft fruits

Because growers have less or no options for soil disinfectants anymore, the use of quality substrates is becoming more and more important. On a larger scale also Spanish growers cultivate on substrate. In Spain, the fruit season begins at this time, with large volumes, much diversity and beautiful quality

Customers visit Dutch Plantin in India

The factories in India receives regular visits from international clients of Dutch Plantin. So that their clients get a good picture of their production, their latest production techniques and the origin of their products. The guests were visibly impressed by Dutch Plantin’s performances.

Why coir in case of drought?

To make the most efficient use of irrigation water is important for growers, especially when there are problems with drought. Some substrates are better than others for optimizing water use. How do coir products perform in case of drought? What are the benefits of growing on Dutch Plantin coir products?

New research method to visualize water and air in growbags

Dutch Plantin has developed a new method to visualize the amount of water and air in layered growbags. Their new research program enables them to compare the characteristics of different coir based growbags and clarify the differences between brands. Until now only loose cocopeat or mixtures of cocopeat with peat moss have been examined.

More coir growbags in Dutch greenhouses?

Growers have been successfully growing on substrates for decades. From the nineties onwards, coir-based growbags were introduced in Holland by several manufacturers, with varying success. At first, there were issues with the lifespan of the plastic, and the coir bags were considered too wet. However, the Sri Lankan and Indian plastics industry improved the quality of the plastic and increased its reliability. It is now possible to guarantee the lifespan of the plastic for years to come. Recent product developments have also made growbags coarser and airier.

Fast transition from vegetative to generative growth

Dutch Plantin has developed a special new product called Dutch Plantin Optima DPpots. It’s a special grade of Dutch Plantin cocopeat and coco-chips.

Dutch Plantin India scoops export award

On October 18, Dutch Plantin India was honored with two export awards from the Indian government at Punjab Agricultural University in Ludhiana. Sri. Kalraj Mishra ji, the Indian Union Cabinet Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises presented the prestigious award to Siby Joseph, managing director of Dutch Plantin India. The company was honored for being the largest exporter of coir pith products in India.

Double layered bag has been a game changer

While most of the greenhouse growers in Belgium and the Netherlands can be considered as avid users of stone wool substrates, the amount of growers that make a shift towards the use of coir substrate slightly increases by the year.

This is confirmed by Wim Roosen of Dutch Plantin. “We see that there is more interest in the use of coco peat substrates. This year a number of Dutch and Belgian growers have started to use our substrates on a larger scale, after several years of trials.”

Indians are much better negotiators than we are

With twelve factories and some 800 Indian employees, Dutch Plantin is one of the most experienced Dutch SME’s in India. Director Jos van Doren: “We located our international sales office in India because Indians are much better negotiators than we are.”

Growers rediscover cocopeat substrates

Coir products have been on the market for almost three decades now, and it took some time for it to reach maturity. Initially coir was mostly known as a vegetative growing medium, but that has changed completely as of 2010.

Not every new product is an innovation

Last week the Global Forum for Innovations in Agriculture took place in The Netherlands. Wim Roosen of coir substrate supplier Dutch Plantin took on the opportunity to use the GFIA Europe as a platform to address what it takes to develop an innovation in the substrate industry.

Dutch Plantin tests emission of water and fertilizers

After positive results in 2016 in a pepper crop, Dutch Plantin continues this year with 2 crops of cucumbers. In the peppers they installed their ‘washed type’ coir bags Double Layer. These were buffered and washed prior to the trial started in a closed system. Sodium was around 3-3,5 mmol/ltr during the crop in the drain water. With a critical amount around 6-7 mmol/ltr they stayed far below. Good yield in quantity and quality similar to conventional growing. This year they start crops of cucumber with washed / non-buffered Double Layer growbags straight in a closed system; results to follow end of this year.