{"id":36798,"date":"2023-12-06T11:44:04","date_gmt":"2023-12-06T11:44:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/befve.com\/news\/could-the-dutch-be-convinced-to-eat-even-more-asparagus\/"},"modified":"2025-07-08T07:54:59","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T07:54:59","slug":"could-the-dutch-be-convinced-to-eat-even-more-asparagus","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/befve.com\/en\/news\/could-the-dutch-be-convinced-to-eat-even-more-asparagus\/","title":{"rendered":"Could the Dutch be convinced to\u00a0eat even more asparagus?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

The Dutch have long held a fondness for asparagus, with each person estimated to eat nearly 1 kg each year. And they are also known for growing high quality asparagus, which is mainly used to supply the domestic market but also exported to other parts of Europe and beyond. However, the planted area and annual production volume of \u2018white gold\u2019 in the Netherlands have been declining since 2018. At the International Asparagus Meeting, held as part of the asparagus and berry show, ExpoSE in Karlsruhe, Germany, on November 23, 2022, Teboza owner Will Teeuwen, a 3rd generation asparagus grower, sketched out the current context and the outlook for the Dutch sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further concentration foreseen for Dutch asparagus production<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The number of Dutch asparagus growers and the planted area has declined since 2018. The number of growers in 2014 was 800 but had dropped to 700 by 2018 and in 2021 stood at 500, while the planted area has gone from 2,800 almost a decade ago to 3,400 in 2018 and 2,900 in 2021. On average, there\u2019s currently about 6 ha per grower and a net yield of about 6,000-7,000 kg\/ha. \u201cI think now we are in a kind of stable situation and the number of growers will still go down but the number of hectares will stay on this level,\u201d Teeuwen said. Dutch production is concentrated in the country\u2019s south, \u201cwhich has something to do with the sandy soil but also with a bit more of a microclimate there, with warmer tem-peratures in spring.\u201d Teboza is located in Limburg, which delivers 63% of production, with a further 33% in North Brabant and 4% dotted around other parts of Holland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall consumption growth stalling, but green gaining traction<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Teeuwen said fresh asparagus consumption is more or less stable in the Dutch market at an average of about 900 g per person, \u201cwhich we think is quite good.\u201d Twenty years ago, it was 200-300 g, \u201cso we did a good job in those 20 years but in the last 5-6 years it has more or less been stable, so there\u2019s a challenge to increase consumption,\u201d he said. White currently accounts for 88% of
asparagus sales in the Netherlands, green 11% and purple under 1%. But the influence of green asparagus is increasing, \u201cnot very fast, but it\u2019s increasing and I think it\u2019s mainly because the younger people are focused more on the green asparagus but also people from abroad, and there\u2019s quite a lot in the Netherlands, are also more into the green.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accommodation the biggest workforce challenge<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Teeuwen said that in 2023, the minimum hourly wage in the Netherlands is \u20ac11.75 gross (up from \u20ac10.24 in 2021), which after taxes puts about \u20ac9.50 net in an employee\u2019s pocket. But the employer cost is actually \u20ac17.63 per hour, which includes payments such as for social security and pension plans for the seasonal workers. \u201cI always thought we had the most expensive salaries in the world but then I saw that Canada is doing quite a good job on that one also,\u201d he quipped. Teboza\u2019s harvest workers mainly come from Romania. It still has some coming from Greece, but these numbers are decreasing. \u201cThe biggest challenge we have at the moment in Holland is not getting the people, by being a good employer we get them, but we also have to house them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Successful robot harvesting probably still 3-4 years away<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Teboza has been doing a lot of tests with robotic harvest machines, including in its fields last year. \u201cUnfortunately, the first one (Cerescon\u2019s Sparter) went bankrupt in the middle of the season and that caused us a big challenge because we had to take out this machine somewhere in April. The other one (from AVL Motion), is still going on but I think we still need some more time before these machines will be suitable for harvesting asparagus on a large scale,\u201d Teeuwen said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rising costs also a major headache<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe biggest challenge we have in the business, not only us as an asparagus grower but as a business in general, is how we can cope with increasing costs,\u201d he went on to say. \u201cWe are constantly trying to innovate in our company.\u201d In addition, Teboza is saving a lot of money on packing materials, which is good both for sustainability and reducing costs. Teeuwen said it is focusing a lot on decreasing packing materials but in the meantime, retail customers are still showing high demand for packed asparagus, \u201cso although we decreased our use of the packaging material signi-ficantly we are packing more asparagus,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s already in the world\u2019s top 5 for\u00a0per\u00a0capita asparagus consumption, but the Netherlands aims to boost domestic sales of the popular vegetable despite a decline in\u00a0its\u00a0production in the last 5 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":36482,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news_categories":[103],"class_list":["post-36798","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news_categories-market"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCould the Dutch be convinced to\u00a0eat even more asparagus? - Befve & Co<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/befve.com\/en\/news\/could-the-dutch-be-convinced-to-eat-even-more-asparagus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Could the Dutch be convinced to\u00a0eat even more asparagus? 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