With a broad assortment of fruits and vegetables and clientele primarily consisting of Dutch wholesalers and exporters, Best of Four has built itself a unique position in the landscape of Dutch growers associations. “What really defines us is that we are independent on the market. We are not allied to any business house and everyone can buy from us,” Manager Ton van Dalen says. Best of Four offers a broad assortment of fruit, greenhouse and outdoor vegetables. The association came into existence in 2010 through a merger between Brassica Group, Tradition, Unistar and Westveg. By now Best of Four boasts 190 members, 110 of which are greenhouse growers. “During the last few years we mostly grew in fruit and outdoor vegetables, but our largest turnover is still in greenhouse vegetables.”
No Retail Sales
The growers of Best of Four are established all over the Netherlands, and the company also has several Belgian greenhouse vegetable growers as members. “Each year we find out how best to market our members’ products, we play a guiding part in that process. Because the British market asks for more delicate products than, say, the German one, we make sure the 35s from a cucumber grower reach a different customer than the 40s,” Van Dalen explains. He definitely does not see supplying supermarkets as the ultimate goal. “Of course retailers can buy large volumes, but you need to be able to unburden such a customer with a complete fruit and vegetable pack. We cannot offer that. Furthermore, supermarkets ask for a buffer function and business houses are more capable of organising that than we are. The payment term of 60 to 90 days which retailers employ also does not fit our view. Our growers just need their money after fourteen days.”
Where other associations emphatically characterise themselves with brands, Best of Four does not work that way. “We carry a Best of Four box, but do not intend to focus directly on the consumer,” Van Dalen says. Import is also not an issue for the growers association. “Never say never, but short-term we will not cooperate with, for example, a Spanish buyers’ cooperative. We do have several members active in Germany, but those sales do not involve us for GMO reasons. Although our members in the Netherlands and Belgium do get more space to sell their product under certain conditions on ‘local for local’ basis, we are more advanced than other associations in that regard.” Van Dalen is still happy with the GMO certification of the association. “It remains an important part of the management of our growers. The GMO funds allow our members to take steps regarding quality, environment and energy, which would not be possible otherwise.”
Bright Trading
Soon after its formation Best of Four introduced digital trade platform Heldere Handel, with a separate module to sell products by auction. The sales module is still not operational, even though it remains a wish of Van Dalen. “The challenge is to continually have an interesting supply, and binding enough buyers to yourself. In our eyes, too many sales in the Netherlands take place through mediation, and we think there should be more space for day trading. That is not just good for prices, but also to smooth out highs and lows on the demand market, but I am not going to be able to do it on my own.” If joining ZON is an option? “They have opened the door to supply from other organisations. We will definitely enter into conversation about that with them.”
Sales Bundling
In the summer of 2015 Best of Four and Van Nature announced having signed a declaration of intent to merge. In outline both associations quickly found each other, but in the end failed to reach each other in execution. Van Dalen looks back at the talks with positive feelings: “It is instructive for associations to share information about how you see the future. I still think it is a shame that the merger did not happen. In the end the differences in vision for commercial approach were too large. If the merger had actually happened, we could have made a great step in sales bundling. We are still open for bundling with other associations, the principle being that it offers a positive contribution to our members.”
Together with five other growers associations Best of Four participates in the FVO managed by Cees Veerman in order to reach a healthy, future proof greenhouse farming sector. Van Dalen has the portfolio social cohesion and communication. “The willingness to cooperate is fully present. We first decided on the themes and are now getting started on the execution. For this, information is shared between members and we continually check its process with the boards of the associations.”
Marketing Intelligence
A part considered within FVO context is Marketing Intelligence. “We will have to gain more numerical insight into our supply. Take, for example, week 12 of last year, historically speaking a difficult cucumber week. People expected the same again last year and prices already started dropping, but suddenly supply from Spain did not pick up and prices shot up again. But that is also not very helpful, because trade does not profit from very high or low prices. If we gain more insight into productions, it should result in more stable pricing.”
Although 2015 entered the books as a good greenhouse vegetable year, we have to wait and see for 2016. “If everything in Europe and outside of it goes well, we will be facing a great challenge. We will then not have problems the entire year, but we will for a large part of the season. Last year supply from Spain was disappointing, the value for the pound and the dollar was more favourable and supply and demand were well-balanced, but I do not think that is structural,” Van Dalen says. “This year peppers started well, cucumber prices fluctuated considerably and tomatoes did not start well at all.”
Van Dalen still has plenty of plans for the future of Best of Four. “After this year’s successful debut on the Fruit Logistica we have decided to participate with a stand again next year. Furthermore, we are emphatically looking into the possibilities regarding online sales of fruits and vegetables and we will put more energy into stopping the decreasing consumption of fruits and vegetables. So plenty of challenges.”
