In November 2014, Herwig Dejonghe decided to leave Greenyard Foods and start his own company in France, Pinguin Aquitaine SAS, which had been a division of Greenyard Foods since 2013. Herwig purchased 52% of the company’s shares, and now has 92%. The new name for the French organization is Antarctic Foods Aquitaine, and has its headquarters in Roeselare. The former PinguinLutosa Food Group CEO talks about the company and his plans.
Products
Antarctic Foods focuses on carrots and sweetcorn. “Aquitaine is in the southwest of France, the perfect region to cultivate these products. The climate can be controlled through irrigation installations. The fields are huge, and very efficiently geared towards precision agriculture. We have ties with many growers from the region. Their acreages vary from 300 to 800 hectares.” Corn and beans were previously supplied by shareholder Lur Berri. “We have now found a new organization for that, Uniproledi, a 40-member cooperative of bean and corn growers specializing in cultivation for frozen and the preserves industry. In the future, we will expand further with other products, like carrots and salsify. As a company, we are rather unique in the area. In terms of carrots, we are the only company processing them frozen. Antarctic Foods has the big advantage of having a carrot production 11 months a year. We are able to respond flexibly to new requests and needs.”
Supplying to industry
During the Pinguin takeover, a deal was made on marketing. “I have a certain restriction in my markets, and for now am not allowed to supply to retail or food service in most European countries. For the first three years, I will focus on the industrial market. We will supply to all frozen vegetable manufacturers and companies that further process vegetables. Many companies that used to be my competitors at Pinguin, are now my clients and potential buyers. I will focus on various countries, but mainly Western and Southern Europe.”
Increased consumption frozen vegetables
Herwig has made an effort to increase the consumption of frozen vegetables for years. “As chairman of the section frozen vegetables of the European trade association, I look to the future with optimism. I am convinced that we still have cards to play in terms of food waste in the frozen sector, for instance by using more frozen vegetables. Many people don’t really know it yet, or prefer fresh products. Sustainability is the keyword everywhere, and we need to make consumers aware that preserving vegetables is a solution for food waste. It’s a shame that many companies from our sector aren’t behind a general promotion campaign. That’s really a missed opportunity.”
