Drenthe Growers produce 30 million cucumbers each year. In the third generation of this family-owned business it is Inge de Vries who manages the office. In addition to his daughter, father Koos can rely upon Inge’s husband Peter, son Pim and manager Kor.
The tasks are fairly divided. Koos, Kor, Peter and Pim take care of everything in the greenhouse and are in charge of 60 to 80 members of staff. Inge: "I visit the greenhouse once or twice a week. I like to see how the crops are coming along. I do all the tasks that are not directly related to actual growing. Lots of paperwork, like the entire certification process. You won’t believe how much work that entails! But we are all involved, together with our father, in deciding the future of the business."
The province of Drenthe, in the east of the country, may well not be the largest horticultural region of the Netherlands, but it has a lot of potential. Inge: "A new generation of growers is emerging. The province and municipality are sympathetic to developments. What you heard people say in the past was there was less light in Drenthe. But the application of grow light has made the difference smaller. And you won’t be stuck in traffic for hours here."
