At open-field vegetable company Compliment from Volkel in Brabant, the Dutch iceberg lettuce season has closed again. Director Peer Schraven looks back on a hugely challenging season. "Every year we say it can't get any crazier, but this season tops it all," he says.
"Last year it started raining in August and that lasted for months. Normally in winter, we plan which plots we plant on which days, based on type, height, and heaviness of the soil, but this year that planning didn't work out at all and we had to look from day to day, where we could plant, which of course also affected the availability of the produce, because we had quite a bit more downtime than other years."
Aphid
"At the beginning of the season, prices were still at a good level, but at some point in the summer, prices fell, even though availability did not warrant it in our view because there was little product. We therefore always felt that prices should pick up, but unfortunately, that turnaround did not come. In September, we faced another worrying challenge as aphid pressure was huge and could not be controlled. Because many of these lots were offered in the market, sales became a huge challenge in the last two months of the season," Peer, looks back.
This situation is of great concern to the grower. "If you see that the disease pressure is already out of control with the current authorized crop protection products, then with the ban on Movento and Batavia from 2026, we have a fiasco hanging over our heads. These products will expire from 2026 and there is still no solution against aphid control. It is a big question mark what is hanging over the heads of growers. Together, we have been researching green agents for years, but this has not yet yielded a result sufficient to start cultivation with acceptable risks. To ensure food security, we need results nine times out of 10, and even then a big risk lies with the grower."
Product availability
"Food availability will become an increasing item. If you normally assume an 80% harvest rate and you have a 60% harvest, that does a huge amount to your cost price. As a grower, do you want to risk an entire crop failing? At the moment, if you deliver a product with aphids, you get a claim on your trousers. That customer acceptance level hasn't changed yet, but it will have to, otherwise we won't have any lettuce left in 2026. I am therefore genuinely concerned about the product availability of our healthy Dutch-grown vegetables!"
He dismisses suggestions on social media and elsewhere to just grow lettuce on water in greenhouses. "I have visited many growers on water, including in America, but with everything nature gives us, I don't believe we can grow more sustainably than outdoors. Besides, the cost price of cultivation on water is at a completely different level than outdoor cultivation and we also want healthy food to remain affordable. After all, a product like iceberg lettuce remains a bulk product. In addition, there are currently no iceberg lettuce varieties that can be grown on water, so for now in the short term, I don't see this happening yet. Perhaps this will change when certain vegetables can no longer be grown outdoors due to soil-borne diseases."
Peer is currently in Spain, where Compliment's partner growers are currently starting the outdoor vegetable harvest. "We work directly with Spanish growers of fennel, pak choi, mini romaine lettuce, and celery, among others, to supply our customers during the winter season. We visit those growers every four to six weeks. At the same time, they face the same challenges. For them too, a remedy like Movento falls away also they do not have a solution for this yet, moreover, for them the water issue is even more challenging than for us. All in all, the pressure on growers is enormous, just think of items like crop protection, labor migration, and water. On the solutions, unfortunately, we seem to have very little influence. Many people seem to forget that we are working daily to provide millions of people with healthy food."
For more information:
Peer Schraven
Compliment BV
Zeelandsedijk 1
5408 SL Volkel
+31 (0)6 22 08 56 60
[email protected]
www.complimentbv.nl