Coinciding with 'Kom in de Kas', BerryBrothers welcomed interested visitors to their greenhouses in Heythuysen and Roggel on Saturday, 5 April. Many people took the opportunity to visit the soft fruit company, which was celebrating its 45th anniversary and also marking the opening of its new facility in Roggel.
Albert van Zuilen with his wife
The tour began at the Dekker location in Heythuysen, where the company grows raspberries from May to October across 14 hectares, yielding a total of 280,000 kilos. Visitors also got a glimpse of the new 6.5-hectare raspberry plot where the variety Malaika is cultivated — a new raspberry that allows for a picking performance of five to six kilos per hour. A monitoring station is used to assess water and nutrient needs, and this is checked daily in the nursery, seven days a week. Each hectare is divided into six sectors with a drain tray system.
The Van der Staaij family also came from Tarragona to take a look.
A van then transported visitors to the Roggel site, where they toured the offices, barrel storage, packaging area, and cold stores. In total, the company has 15 ULO (Ultra Low Oxygen) cells, each capable of holding 48 pallets. These cells allow redcurrants to be stored for over seven months.
New blueberry sorting machine for colour and ripeness
Naturally, packaging options were also showcased. Currently, 70% of BerryBrothers' fruit is sold in open packaging, and 30% in closed. Up to 50 different packaging combinations are possible. A highlight was Optimum Sorting's new sorting machine, which can sort blueberries by colour and ripeness. The machine manufacturer has already delivered several units in the United States, and BerryBrothers is the first to use one in the Netherlands.
Ger Zinken and Jonathan Bervoets of Optimum Sorting
A combined 43 hectares of redcurrants are grown at the Roggel and Neeritter locations, with another 30 hectares at the Betuwe site in Buren — bringing total redcurrant production to 1,000,000 kilos. One of the innovations BerryBrothers has introduced is growing in pots, which allows for even more precise water and nutrient management.
All of these redcurrants are harvested by hand, which means a large workforce is required. The soft fruit specialist proudly presented its new agro-apartment in Roggel, which provides accommodation for 180 seasonal workers. Leisure was also taken into account — a professional gym has been installed on the premises.
Agro-apartment
The many visitors, including industry professionals, left with plenty of new impressions — and, of course, with blueberries and raspberries. Children were also catered to, with a treasure hunt and a bouncy castle.
1,000 visitors
Nijs van Zuilen looked back on the Open Day with enthusiasm. "The weather worked in our favour, and the turnout really surprised us. We had 850 people signed up, but we'd already run out of pieces of flan early on, so we're certain around 1,000 people came — from the local area, family, friends, and many customers."
Nijs van Zuilen (right) with Raf van Rooij and Rob Wessels of Bakker
"For us, it was a great moment — just before the busy harvest season — to show people how things work here and how we house our staff. Housing for seasonal workers is often portrayed negatively in the news, but this was a great opportunity to show the opposite. We wrapped up the day with a party for family, friends, and neighbours, and another 300 people attended. All in all, a super cool day," Nijs concluded.
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For more information:
Nijs and Teun van Zuilen
BerryBrothers
Nijken 18
6088 NR Roggel
Tel: +31 (0) 6 46 70 84 53
n.vanzuilen@berrybrothers.nl / T.vanzuilen@berrybrothers.nl
www.berrybrothers.nl