As 2010 draws to a close, Dutch Plantin would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and sustainable 2011. Just like last year, we will be giving our best to improve the quality level of our products and make them even better than they are already. As the coco peat market develops rapidly, some suppliers risk the quality of their products in order to respond to the increasing demand. With Dutch Plantin, that is not the case.
Quality supervision
When the demand for our products increases, we secure the quality of our products by expanding the supervision. In that way we can meet our client’s wishes without jeopardizing the unique performance of our coco products. Therefore, we have provided our quality supervisors with three specially equipped vehicles which they can use to measure all kinds of product values, like the EC, the pH scale, the sand composition and the bulk density. All these key features can be measured and documented immediately at the production facility, using the lab kit in the cars.
Independent
All Dutch Plantin production sites have their own laboratories, but our quality supervisors operate separately from the production facility. They are not on the factory’s payroll, which means that they can do their jobs independently. They report to the Dutch Plantin headquarters and send in their measurements every week. These get analyzed right away, so we know if the products meet our high quality standards before the shipments reach our clients.
Various quality tests
Dutch Plantin uses different methods to increase the quality of the coco peat. In Coimbatore, India, we buffer the coco peat, which means that we introduce calcium [2+] in order to remove monovalent positive ions such as potassium [1+] from the coconut complex. After the process is completed, we run various tests to determine if there is enough calcium in the coconut complex. In addition to these tests, we take samples to measure the weed pressure of our products. The RHP label states that 1m2 of coco peat may not contain more than 8 weed seeds. Dutch Plantin aims to produce coco peat with even less weed seeds per m2. And thanks to over fifteen years of experience and development, we can. To ensure that our products meet our high standards, we also check the weed pressure of our products at our quality laboratory in the Netherlands. We do not underestimate the importance of these tests, because the introduction of exotic weed seeds can be a threat to any kind of horticulture or agriculture.
