A number of years ago, four cultivating friends agreed: if we continue to grow tomatoes like this, we won't be ready for the future. This is why they decided to collaborate and market their products under the brand Den Berk Délice. "The four of us started a new plan and a new attitude in 2013," say the men. In total they have an area of 42.5 hectares of tomatoes, of which 15 hectares are vine and 27.5 hectares are specialities. Of this, 19 hectares is under light.
Enough fragmentation already
Koen, Luc, Paul and Hans are all members of Veiling Hoogstraten and their relationship with the cooperation is highly valued. Together they indicate: "We hope to continue this. We see the added value of marketing together, but as businessmen we don't want to be held back in our ideas. It's important to us that we have a bit of freedom regarding the market and this happens in agreement with Hoogstraten. We prefer to have contact with our buyers ourselves. By talking to the retailers we found out what they're looking for and what tomatoes and concepts are suitable for their customers. At the moment the focus is on what we have at the moment and no hasty decisions are made. We absolutely support collaborations. We don't want even more fragmentation in horticulture. By producing absolute quality and taste we want to pull up our fellow horticulturists. It's good for our colleagues, the auction and us. Growing for the demand in the market is our starting point."
Divers tomato concepts
At first the focus was on vine tomatoes. "We consciously chose to do this. First of all we want to make low cost productions and also to calmly work out our idea more. The switch came three years ago. Koen and Hans were already growing specialities and we saw the opportunity to further specialise under the brand Den Berk Délice. But a sufficiently large volume had to be produced to serve the retail. Over the course of the years we extended more and more and made various investments in all kinds of areas." The men supply their products to all Belgian retailers through the auction. Some also goes abroad. "We are active in different tomato concepts. Diverse tomatoes are grown for different occasions. Getting insight into the tomato shelf is one of the goals. "Our end goal is to be a flexible partner for the retail and help the consumers to make a choice from the shelf."
Den Berk Délice
The products are partially marketed under the own brand Den Berk Délice, but a lot is also sold under private label in the supermarket. "Of course we hope that one day the consumer will ask for Den Berk tomatoes," the men laugh. "Various concepts have already been developed under this brand, including Miss Perfect. One of the newest is the Pick&Mix concept, designed for Delhaize, in collaboration with Primalabel. Here, four colours of tomatoes are presented together in an attractive packaging. What was important was that the packaging was open so the consumers could taste. It's a huge success! As growers we want to supply added value by advising the retail and thinking along. We are constantly looking for niches, innovations and new varieties and find our ideas in the global fruit and vegetable sector. We have a very high bar."
Pure, People, Pioneer and Partner
Den Berk has set up four cornerstones to describe the vision of the company: Pure, People, Pioneer and Partner. Den Berk Délice is a collection of four different greenhouse cultivation companies: Den Berk BVBA, Lauwerysen Krijnen BVBA, Beirinckx BVBA and Benteltom BVBA. The products are made market ready in a new conditioned packaging warehouse, where 300 to 400,000 packagings are processed per week. Next year Den Berk expects to double the capacity. The newest technologies such as flowpack machines and a multihead weigher have been invested in for this. A lot of care is taken to produce a functional and attractive packaging, where everything is possible in agreement with the customer. Due to the cultivation under light our product is available all year round with the same quality and taste."
