The following newspaper headliners dominate not only the news in autumn 2021, but the conversations with our suppliers here at the office as well. Every supplier points out to empty out the greenhouses this coming winter. The artificial lighting of the crop has become unaffordable. Last year, the price per cubic meter was around 15 cents, which is now sevenfold to around 95 cents per cubic meter.
What is the solution?
There is no solution! Well, not a solution we can control. There are multiple factors which cause these high prices. This is mainly the high demand for gas after the economic restauration from the COVID-19 crisis, but also the high supply of gas in Norway, Russia and the Netherlands. This makes sense to anyone who had school with economics because: high demand and low supply make the price rise. Finally, the cold spring in the Netherlands has a lot of impact on the high prices.
What is the plan now?
The Dutch greenhouses are responsible for 9% for the total gas usage in the Netherlands. Since the energy bills quickly increase, growers have decided to keep their greenhouses empty. ‘We can’t grow in these circumstances’, quoting Dutch growers who suffer from the high and rising gas prices.
Kwekerij 't Woudt (tomatoes): “Extremely high gas and power prices make growing good artificial lighting crops hard for us this winter.”
Bert Doelman (zucchini): “I normally buy my gas a couple weeks in advance, and I thought the prices would fall this summer. I never expected that the prices would rise through the roof! I will probably not be heating because of this price rising, So now I will be starting 6 weeks later this season.”
What can you expect from BE Fresh?
We, too, will sadly have to suffer from the consequences of the rising gas prices. This is what you can expect from us:
- Artificial lightning crops will be scarcer and will have higher prices this coming winter and spring 2022.
- Our assortment of greenhouse crops will be smaller than you are used to. Please keep sending us your requests (on time!) so we can look for the best alternatives.
- The Netherlands are more dependent on the import of Spain and Morocco for tomatoes, peppers and zucchini in the winter. Read this article about season changes. Here, the attention is paid to all the differences and similarities. We have good bonds with foreign suppliers, close to the source. We will still try to bring you the best possible quality, as you are familiar with.
Even though no one can escape the consequences of the rising gas prices, we will, as expected, try our best to make this pricing as competitive as possible.
Feel free to contact me to talk about this topic