On Saturday 15 March, Aspergehoeve Bossuyt opened a pop-up shop in Knokke. The company, which—as the name suggests—specializes in asparagus, saw that the start of the season attracted a lot of people to the shop at 218 Lippenslaan in the Flemish coastal town. "I have always been an advocate of selling directly. We want to keep control over what happens to our product, which is why we now have an additional outlet with the shop, in addition to our on-farm sales," Kris Bossuyt of the Oostrozebeke-based cultivation company of the same name told me.
The company has been growing asparagus in heated soil under plastic greenhouses since 2001. "As a result, we're a bit earlier than field-grown asparagus and were able to harvest the first one last Thursday," Kris explains. "I've been managing my own sales since the beginning. My vision has always been to sell everything I grow myself. That way, you know what happens to your product and who you're selling to. Plus, I enjoy the customer contact. In fact, I've always called it 'playing shop'. Only now the shop has grown bigger and we've added another temporary extra location."
The idea had been on Kris' mind for a while. "I once saw a video of a company doing something similar in the Netherlands, and I immediately thought, 'One day, I'm going to do that too.' And now that day has come," he laughs. "I quickly chose the location for it. If I had to put the ideal location on paper, I would have picked Knokke-Heist right away. People there enjoy life a bit more and are willing to pay for what they like. And so it happened."
The grower is pleased with how the opening day went. "We got off to a good start right away. It was a bit chilly, but that didn't stop people from coming by. Many already found their way to the shop. We're also in an ideal spot—everyone shopping in Knokke passes by our pop-up shop. It's only the fourth day we've been open, but I visited again yesterday to restock and people were constantly coming in and out. You can tell people are excited now that the season has started again. Everyone walks in with a smile."
Even the higher prices at the beginning of the season aren't deterring customers. "No, volumes are still fairly limited, of course. But it's early in the season, and people know that. Everyone who comes into the shop is an enthusiast, so they're usually happy to pay a little extra for quality. Besides, when you buy directly from the grower, you know it's always good. The best asparagus is fresh asparagus—you won't find them any better."
So, is Kris thinking about turning the temporary shop into a permanent one? "Well, I don't know yet. We only sell asparagus, so the idea for now is to be open during the asparagus season, from mid-March to mid-June. It's also our first time doing this, so we're still figuring things out. If it really takes off, then we can look at what direction we want to go in. But it's too early to say right now—we've only just started. Let's first see how the next few months go. In any case, we're looking forward to it."
For more information:
Kris Bossuyt
Aspergehoeve Bossuyt
Lippenslaan 218, Knokke-Heist
Tel: +32 472 80 11 40
info@verseasperges.be
www.verseasperges.be