After a sabbatical, René Leenders was approached by a Turkish supplier he had worked with for years, asking if he would be interested in joining the newly established office of Enjoy Trade, which started in October last year. Together with Furkan, the brother of the Turkish owner, René runs the Dutch office in Venlo. "This is a perfect fit. From the Netherlands, we handle customs clearance, and invoicing, and serve as the point of contact to make things as easy as possible for our clients."
Left: quinces, right: Furkan and René
Enjoy Trade Holland is based in Venlo and has the option for storage and transshipment at the Fresh Park Venlo site. "However, we try to place most of the goods while they're still in transit," says René. The company supplies customers in the Netherlands and Germany but is seeing increasing demand, particularly from Eastern European countries. "We've already sent a significant amount of goods to Poland."
The company offers a fully Turkish product range, with vine tomatoes as the top seller, followed by Dolma peppers and fruits like figs, quinces, and pomegranates. "We can offer anything that grows in Turkey. We're also seeing a growing demand for dried figs and even olive oil," René explains. Last month, the company participated in the Interfresh Eurasia trade fair in Izmir. "It was a good show for us; we had many customers and suppliers visit our booth, including supermarkets from Eastern Europe interested in Turkish vine tomatoes."
Turkish pomegranates under own brand
"The demand for Turkish vine tomatoes grows yearly, and we sell them all across Europe. Spain has struggled in recent years with extreme weather and water shortages while growing conditions in Turkey are much more stable. Since retailers cannot fully meet their supply needs from Spain and Morocco, the demand for Turkish vine tomatoes is increasing," René explains. "Turkish growers have rapidly professionalized and now meet the certification requirements set by European retailers. Everything we deliver from Turkey comes directly from certified, well-known growers without intermediaries. The only challenge is transportation, as trucks from Turkey take about six days to arrive."
"Where you used to see mostly plastic greenhouses, now hectares of glass greenhouses are rising, built with Dutch expertise, often equipped with their own energy and water systems. In principle, we can supply Turkish vine tomatoes year-round. Normally, demand from the Netherlands starts later in the year, but for the past three weeks, there has already been strong demand for Turkish vine tomatoes. I expect that demand will only continue to grow. We certainly won't be bored!"
For more information:
René Leenders
Enjoy Trade Holland
Parlevinkerweg 1
5928 NV Venlo
Mob: +31 6 25 53 52 35
[email protected]
www.enjoytrade.com.tr