25 years anniversary

“The growers who started with MPS 25 years ago did that out of conviction. They themselves really wanted to produce flowers or plants sustainably. Either because they felt responsible for the environment and their staff or because they could already see that there was a growing market demand for sustainable products. They wanted to differentiate themselves and perhaps make a few cents extra. An environmental record-keeping system was way ahead of its time back then,” explains Dirk Hogervorst, acting CEO at MPS.

Later a new category joined up: growers who could see that they needed to participate because there was increasing customer demand for sustainable products. Record-keeping and certification was also their own choice because they believed it was worthwhile and necessary.

5,000 clients
That’s how MPS grew to have around 5,000 clients worldwide. The carefully structured record-keeping’s schedules help with this. “But it isn’t only the certificate that attracted growers then and continues to do so,” says Hogervorst. “The data they collect allows them to improve their business and to compare their business with other breeders who have the same products and product conditions. It allows them to produce more efficiently.”

Sustainability standard
A recent FloraHolland decision brought everything into sharp focus. From 2021, the auction house will make it compulsory for almost all its suppliers to keep environmental records. Why? Society is changing. Retail and consumers believe that proven sustainable business operations ought to be a given: it is an absolute pre-requisite for even being allowed to supply.

Accessibility is our trump card
This decision made by the auction house means that around 3,500 suppliers from the Netherlands and abroad will be forced to take a step they had not previously been motivated to do of their own accord. In 2020 MPS prepared itself for this new target group and for the expansion of the market.

Accessibility is our trump card in the new approach. The record-keeping system has been simplified and since August it has been possible to input data using a smartphone or tablet. We have upgraded the IT to ensure that MPS can handle the growing stream of data and still remain available. There is a new pricing structure with lower rates, for existing customers too. “That’s now become possible because the new technology and the expected influx of new customers allows us to work more efficiently,” says Hogervorst.

‘We already have a record-keeping’, was one of the arguments Miltenburg encountered during the member sessions in the country. “Growers are indeed obliged to record their substance use, for example, in accordance with the legal regulations. But that is not digital and also too limited, and is not checked regularly”, says Miltenburg. These record-keepings do not help improve cultivation and the market also demands more. “I think it is a shame when growers say ‘the trade is not obliged to only purchase certified sustainable, so I will not start such a sustainability certificate’. Come on, we have to if we want to keep selling flowers and plants. If you record what you do, have it checked and are transparent about it, you can show that you are growing sustainably. As a cooperative, we take the leading role. Trade will follow automatically.”

Start at the beginning
After two years of preparation, enforcement of the obligation to digital environmental record-keeping will take effect for the first group of suppliers. After the environmental record-keeping the certification follows, for example MPS-ABC. “We start with the basics.” A follow-up with MPS-GAP or GLOBALG.A.P. is obvious, because major exporters and trading companies, united in the Floriculture Sustainability Initiative (FSI), demand this.

Competition
Talks were held with members for two years. An important point of criticism was the ‘forced shopping’. “That is why we at Royal FloraHolland encouraged more freedom of choice. GLOBALG.A.P. now offers a comparable environmental certificate.”

Remarkable, since Miltenburg has been a board member at MPS on behalf of Royal FloraHolland since 2019. “More competition is also good for MPS. Without a choice, fewer growers would feel like switching to MPS. MPS can withstand that competition, with 25 years of experience in international floriculture, it has its affaires organised. But we noticed during the member sessions that MPS was not always looked at in a good way, especially at smaller companies and it is important to listen to that.”

MPS has since worked on improving a number of points. The price for the environmental record-keeping in the first year has been decoupled from the certification rate, which has been significantly reduced. A great deal of effort has also been made to improve information provision and service to customers. “In the coming year we will continue to look for solutions to accommodate smaller companies even more. That’s where my past experience comes in handy. In the twenty years that I worked for Douwe Egberts, I witnessed the emergence of certification for small coffee farmers with the UTZ Certified organisation.”And the criticism about the double hats she sometimes gets to hear? “If my two hats are a problem, I’ll hand in one. But I am completely transparent and I am there for the content: growers can merely benefit from this double position.”

“Retailers have neither the time nor the expertise to look more closely into the mass of sustainability labels, so they set their own requirements. NGOs follow the sector critically and can sometimes point out the shortcomings. And consumers are expecting ever higher standards for product origin. Even so, it’s good that there is more than one certification scheme because each local scheme has its own specialism, giving it has added value for growers and the market,” says Jeroen Oudheusden, director of the Floriculture Sustainability Initiative (FSI).

Two assignments
When it was established, the FSI was handed two tasks related to certification:

• Task 1: Investigate what those 60 sustainability labels stand for and ensure that they are transparent and can be easily compared
• Task 2: Test whether the certification complies with the standards set by international law and treaties

FSI Basket of Standards
“We asked certification bodies to have their labels assessed against international standards. That was rather nerve-racking. But it was also good to see that all the major schemes in the sector that cooperate with the request. It goes without saying that MPS has complied with FSI requirements right from the start with MPS-GAP and MPS-SQ. They are included in the FSI Basket of Standards. The advantage of this ‘basket’ is that purchasers and the like don’t have to know all the specific labels any more. They can use the standards in the FSI basket as their reference point. What’s more, this information has recently started to be displayed on the auction market clocks,” says Oudheusden.

More than a label
“‘No sustainability, no future’ has become an accepted truth. Certification is a significant means to achieving it, but can never be the aim in its own right. Growers who have MPS certification can demonstrate that they have put the effort into becoming more sustainable. MPS’s innovative schedules and an online record-keeping tool helps the whole sector to collaborate to improve sustainability. Thanks to MPS certification, growers can demonstrate that they comply with market requirements and also that they have been reducing their environmental impact for years,” says Oudheusden.

“That makes MPS more than just a label. It’s great to see that MPS people, both inside and outside the FSI, have spent 25 years playing a major role in connecting partners within the supply chain. Allowing people to collaborate builds up trust and that creates the vital basis for continuing to increase sustainability in the floriculture sector.

“The chains to which we want to supply really want a clean product. It is the reason why we also started with MPS-ProductProof. To demonstrate that the resources they have on the blacklist are not used by us. In any case, we only use crop protection agents about five or six times a year. Garden centers and supermarkets do not talk about a higher price. It just goes at day trading prices”, says Raadschelders. The 6-hectare fern company, spread over two locations in De Kwakel and Zevenhoven, produces ferns for markets in and outside Europe. Most of it goes to garden centers, but also to hardware stores, wholesalers and cash & carries.

Providing solutions
Raadschelders: “The advantage we have of all those quality marks is that we take a critical look at our company. Where can we do even better, where can we do with less water or crop protection? This also simply saves money. I also call MPS when we fall back in a score. Then they help me find out why.”

Clean
“Sometimes I wonder if every question about inventory management, hygiene protocols or other points in the certification scheme is really necessary. It must be feasible”, says Raadschelders. When it comes to substance use, packaging, water or energy, Raadschelders herself looks very closely, so here MPS’s critical view is right for her. “We simply want to burden the environment as little as possible and treat employees properly. If the market also explicitly asks for it, then you just want to get those certificates. ”

“Stock material is not allowed to contain any diseases or pests: the so-called zero tolerance. Growers want to start their cultivation with one hundred percent clean stock material, to ensure that they can use as little herbicides and pesticides themselves as possible. Nevertheless, we started trials with Integrated Pest Management (IPM) seven years ago. In many of our crops we work as much as possible with organic herbicides and pesticides and only use chemical alternatives if there are no organic solutions available, or if there is no other way,” says Manuela van Leeuwen, Phytosanitary Officer at Dümmen Orange in De Lier. The company breeds and supplies stock materials for flowers and plants worldwide.

“The biggest complication for IPM is the acceptance of organic herbicides and pesticides and natural enemies. Especially outside Europe”

Dümmen Orange has several production farms throughout the world. All these locations use MPS-ABC for registration. “We’re shifting as much as possible from registration to cleaner cultivation. For some crops we have now switched entirely to IPM. This is the case with, for example, the poinsettias and geraniums in Ethiopia.”

Model for residue source
Van Leeuwen: “Our goal is to prevent residue further down the chain. We have conducted research into which herbicides and pesticides remain present for a long period of time, and are doing our best to reduce the use of these products. This project, the so-called Chain Transparency Project, was carried out together with other partners, including MPS and the Floriculture Sustainability Initiative (FSI), which aims to ensure that 90 percent of the flowers and plants traded are produced responsibly. One of the results of this project is an MPS model that enables us to trace the origin of residue.”

Trust
Van Leeuwen: “Another result is that Dümmen Orange is now able reduce residue. What helps is the indication from MPS-MIND on how harmful herbicides and pesticides are. This system enables us to assess which herbicides and pesticides we can use within IPM. And if, in the case of an emergency, it would be better to use a green herbicide or pesticide with low toxicity several times or an orange pesticide once. The latter is sometimes better for the survival of ichneumon wasps, for example, which are used to fight whitefly.”

Toxicity of herbicides and pesticides is not the same in every country. For example, a pesticide that is harmful to aquatic organisms may be red in the Netherlands and green in a dry country like Uganda. Van Leeuwen: “I think it’s extraordinary how MPS has properly categorised all available herbicides and pesticides for so many different countries, at least all the ones where we operate. I can trust that data from MPS.”

Fortunately, the abbreviation MPS (which now stands for More Profitable Sustainability) did catch on: MPS is now a well-known brand in the German floriculture industry. Zeiler is also no stranger to the sector: he has now held various positions in the German floriculture industry for more than 35 years. He is the Managing Director of the Association of the German Wholesale and Import of Flowers (Verband des deutschen Blumen- Groß- und Importhandels – BGI) and he represents the German flower and plant wholesaler in the role of vice-chairman in the international umbrella organisation Union Fleurs. Also, he is a member of the economic committee of the German Ministry of Agriculture and Food.

“The floriculture industry is highly globalised, which means that we are responsible for everyone who adds value to the international floriculture chain”

Constant interfaces
During his career in the green sector, Zeiler always came across MPS. “There have been common ground throughout. I witnessed the early stages of MPS up close and saw how the company became increasingly known internationally. MPS is made for floriculture because of its roots. MPS certificates are constantly tested and adapted to changes in the market. As a result, they are always one step ahead of the market and companies can build on the MPS certificate. I think we can further improve the market for flowers and plants with a shared responsibility.”

Really got content
Sustainability has been on the agenda of the German floriculture sector for decades, but has only really taken off in recent years. “It has become more decisive in terms of implementation. At first, the focus was mainly on reducing the use of environmentally harmful resources. Now, sustainability is about many more things: reducing CO2 emissions to saving raw materials and generating energy from sustainable sources”, says Zeiler. “The floriculture industry is highly globalised, which means that we are responsible for everyone who adds value to the international floriculture chain”.

Ina Reinders has been working on the topic of sustainability for the German chain BLUME2000 AG for almost a decade. It is the largest German florist chain, with approximately 230 branches and a webshop. In three years’ time, the company will celebrate its 50th anniversary.

Reinders: “I started at BLUME2000 when I was writing the master’s thesis for my MBA in Sustainability Management. This actually led to the creation of my position as Corporate Responsibility Manager. This was at a time when such positions did not yet exist at all in the floriculture sector in Germany.”

“Constantly competing with yourself and with others provides a continuous incentive to do even better”

 MPS raises the bar every time
“Supporting the floriculture sector in increasing sustainability; this is something we at BLUME2000 think is extremely important. To increase sustainability, growers need a system that helps them continue to develop and improve. Not just a checklist where they just tick off the same criteria all the time,” says Reinders. “MPS keeps raising the bar and thus ensures a continuous process of increasing sustainability. MPS-ABC, in particular, gives the grower the opportunity to gain insight over time into their own development and also to compare their own performance with that of other companies. An important element is that, by recording data, a grower regularly becomes aware of their impact on the environment. Constantly competing with yourself and with others provides a continuous incentive to do even better.”

MPS-ABC as a Christmas gift
“Certification – for growers and traders – is always a challenge. In addition, before your start, it looks even bigger and complex than it really is. We also repeatedly hear arguments such as time and money from horticulturists, who want to make it clear that certification is not a priority for them at the moment. But teamwork makes everything go more smoothly,” Reinders points out. “A few years ago, the wife of one of our suppliers called me to tell me that, after considerable delay, they wanted to start using MPS-ABC. ‘I’m taking over our company’s registration as a Christmas present for my husband!’ she said.”

Image: Doug Cole

Trailblazer in sustainability
The company has been a trailblazer in sustainability for many years. Grower Doug Cole saw the system of tools developed by MPS to help growers to improve their environmental performance and he was impressed. “In Europe growers were starting to use MPS-ABC’, Cole says. ‘We wanted to do the same. And so we did.”

Cole explains: “This system has been a great help in achieving our goals, constantly setting the bar higher and making results measurable and verifiable. It lets growers show the world that they are producing more and more sustainable.” Another aspect of the MPS-ABC system that appeals to Cole is the fact that it is monitored and has reliable registration, thereby creating a level playing field.

Now also MPS-GAP certified
Having started with MPS-ABC, Cole is now also MPS-GAP certified. “We had a couple of reasons for this. First because our pot plants were being sold in supermarkets, along with potting soil. The certificate also helped us with a number of ‘common sense’ requirements, such as the emergency evacuation plan. In addition, GAP opened our eyes to the need to establish certain training procedures.”

The whole team
Participants in the MPS programme receive quarterly benchmark data and feedback on their individual performance in five categories: use of crop protection products, fertilisers, energy, water and waste.

Cole explains: “By taking measurements, we are able to see exactly what we are doing. Every year we analyse the results. Without the MPS systems and procedures, we wouldn’t be able to do that so effectively. MPS is extremely helpful in this respect.”

The plant grower has a cultivation manager who has a natural interest in sustainable production. His advice to other growers is: “If you want to improve sustainability and make a success of it, make sure that the whole team takes part.”

Image: The first bouquet with the consumer brand Fair Flowers Fair Plants is sold.

Too early
“For the first few years, FFP grew exponentially. Many businesses understood the value of a label that told consumers that the sector was on the right path and that they could use to recognise ‘green’ plants and flowers,” says Dinkla.

It all went wrong along the lines of the classic chicken and egg story. “Shops wanted complete FFP bouquets, but it wasn’t possible to make them because there wasn’t an adequate supply of certain types of FFP flowers. Growers weren’t interested in paying the extra expense of certification while demand wasn’t growing. Nowadays, sustainability has been adopted as an integral part of the sector and the retail sector is more insistent about sustainability. I think that the initiative was simply before its time,” says Dinkla. The number of participants decreased year after year. In 2017 the curtain fell on the label.

Mental preparation for Socially Qualified-certificering
There’s a wise lesson to be learnt from Fair Flowers Fair Plants: ‘keep your enemies close. “Together with environmental organisations and trade unions, we determined the standard FFP growers had to meet in terms of environment and working conditions,” says Dinkla. It generated some heated discussions, but we always found a compromise. This developed a more positive relationship between horticulture and partners who had previously been extremely critical. The diverse range of partners wasn’t the reason the initiative failed. Quite the opposite. It mentally prepared people in horticulture for SQ certification. For instance, before FFP, Dutch growers thought that their treatment of employees was correct because they were complying with the law. But it became apparent that there were many areas for improvement, especially those related to accommodation and wages. It was because of FFP that growers became aware of that.”

Certificates help
De Haan: “Lemkes’ mission is sustainable growth. This is at the heart of our existence. We’re also partners to large retail chains such as IKEA, Kingfisher and OBI. They expect a clean and socially responsible product. They’re also being pressured by society.”

“We have an amazing sector. But we owe it to our beautiful products, to our leading global position and to our children and grandchildren to go full speed ahead towards becoming more sustainable”

Our dream for 2030 is already embedded in our business operations. The company is a member of the Floriculture Sustainable Initiative (FSI). This means that at least 90 percent of the flowers and plants Lemkes trades in must be sustainably produced. “Our buyers have tight targets for this, and we managed to reach this target in 2020.”

Certificates help trading companies with making sustainable purchases. Since 2001, growers have been able to apply for MPS-GAP certification. This is the certificate that meets retail sustainability requirements. In 2018, MPS-SQ, MPS-ABC and MPS-GAP were included in the quality certificates that meet FSI standards.

Setting demands
De Haan: “The Dutch floriculture chain supplies fabulous products but, like any other sector, it has its own ‘inconvenient truth’. The good news is that there are many examples of companies that are doing well. And the sector as a whole is succeeding on some fronts, such as reducing the use of herbicides and pesticides.

But it is a fragmented sector, with lots of – sometimes small – companies, in both cultivation and trade. If you want to get everyone in the chain to aim towards ‘positive plants’, you’ll have to impose standards. MPS can’t enforce anything. However, when retailers or auctions set demands, MPS offers a lot of knowledge and wisdom that can help growers take the necessary steps.”

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The certificate is based on the International Code of Conduct. The code strives for equal human rights in regions where the rule of law is undermined.

Together with NGOs, MPS put the MPS-SQ on the map, especially in Africa. “It took a lot of effort to get MPS-SQ on the market in countries like Kenya and Ethiopia”, said Theo de Groot, former director of MPS. “There was environmental awareness, but at the same time workers were left out. We wanted to improve the social conditions at those nurseries. ”

Fair trade pioneer
One of the first companies to be MPS-SQ certified was Tropiflora Kenya, a cut flower company founded by Bernhard Bürgisser in 1982. Bürgisser was a pioneer in the field of (social) sustainability and fair trade in flowers and plants. “Proper working conditions and sustainability were more important to my father than making a lot of profit”, says his son Valentin Bürgisser. Bürgisser junior was CEO of agrotropic from 2014 to 2018, but has now passed the baton to Matthias Haudenschild. Bernhard Bürgisser died on 7 November in Weiningen, Switzerland, after a long illness.

Hospital, church and school
In Kenya, Sher Ethiopia, the largest rose farm in the world, has been MPS-SQ certified for nearly ten years. Frans Kuipers is a consultant at the company. “We believe that social services are just as important. There is a hospital, church and a school on site that people who do not work for the company are also allowed to use. We started small with the school, but the school now has more than 6000 children. The lessons are free and taught by teachers from Ethiopia”, says Kuipers. “We believe that what you give on the right, you receive on the left. As long as you are treating your people right.”

Soccer competition
In 2008, Sher Ethiopia built a sports complex for the people of Ziway. “Many of our packers play football in the afternoon, then pack and go to bed after packing. There are dozens of teams and we even have an internal competition.” Sher Ethiopia is consciously working with the environment anyway, says Leen van Driel, auditor at MPS-ECAS. “I visited the nursery in August last year for an audit. Many trees have been planted, when you walk across the site, you notice how green it is.”

Image: Michelle van Dijk

With 0.3 hectares of Ornithogalum (Star of Bethlehem), Michelle van Dijk regularly ran into unusual problems. “I use very small amounts of herbicides and pesticides. I measure in terms of tenths of a gram and millilitres. The system only accepted half and whole grams, so that’s what I’d fill in,” she laughs.

Nevertheless, she brought this up with MPS because she thought other small businesses would also be struggling with it. MPS adjusted the system accordingly. Since December 2020, small quantities can be registered exactly, enabling growers who use very little to also see if they’re making progress.

It’s part of the job
Is MPS registration useful for her own business? “To be honest, no! A glance at my store cupboard tells me more. But it doesn’t really matter that much. Because what I do benefit from is the insight my customers gain through MPS certification. My plants mainly go to florists, who don’t have requirements or ask for labels like IKEA or Intratuin do. But they do want to know what I’m doing. With the MPS-A certificate I can show them,” Van Dijk explains.

“I never considered not registering. In 2020, it’s simply part of what society – the consumer – is demanding. And I want to be a clean producer. In addition to the nursery, I also have a job as a travel guide at the North Pole, where I constantly see plastic washing up. This is why my pots are made of recycled plastic and are themselves one hundred percent recyclable.”

Thirty steps
Van Dijk is also working on getting MPS-GAP and MPS-SQ. The fact that MPS is lowering rates is welcome news. “You can see my entire nursery in 30 steps. Until now, I paid the same amount as a company with 5 hectares. But this is changing.”

At home in horticulture
‘It’s better to organise registration yourself rather than to have it imposed on you by civil servants’, was the idea in the Van Dijk household 25 years ago. “MPS began in horticulture. Growth of an organisation always brings changes, but you can still tell that the auditors are at home in the horticulture sector, and know what they’re looking for when they come in our company.”

Image: In memoriam Bernhard Bürgisser

At the end of the nineties, the trade became increasingly interested in certified products. As founder of Agrotropic and Blume 3000, Bernhard Bürgisser was a pioneer in the field of (social) sustainability and fair trade in flowers and plants. As far back as the 1980s, he took environmental and social conditions into account during production. It showed his love for the floriculture sector.

Sustainability over profit
In 1976 Bürgisser founded Agrotropic. The company is the largest importer of Fairtrade flowers in Switzerland. In the 1990s, he contributed to the criteria that ensure that flower production takes into account not only the environment, but also working conditions. Partly because of him, flowers are now traded worldwide with a focus on people and the environment. “My father was working on this when nobody else was. Good working conditions and sustainability were more important than making a big profit,” says his son Valentin Bürgisser.

Tackle with data
Tropiflora Sri Lanka, a farm founded by Bürgisser together with local organizations in 1980, was one of the first MPS-ABC certified companies abroad. “Bürgisser thought it was important to tackle the environmental issue with data. At the time, he already felt that things could not continue like this and was actively convincing people of the importance of sustainability,” says Theo de Groot, former director of MPS. In 2004 Tropiflora Sri Lanka received from MPS the award “MPS Top Grower” for obtaining the MPS-A certificate in addition to MPS-SQ and MPS-GAP.

Knowing the whole chain
In Kenya, Bürgisser repeated the concept, under the name Tropiflora Kenya. 1983 he founded Blume 3000, a collection of ten florists based in Switzerland. “My father thought it was important to know the entire chain, from the starting material to the product that is ultimately in the store. Having direct knowledge about the whole supply chain gives you the opportunity to provide the really best flowers to the end customers – also with regards to the inner quality of the product” says Bürgisser junior. “His vision of fair trade is deeply rooted in the organization and will always live on.”

Introduce nuances
When he started, the ideals of sustainable cultivation were just emerging. Vis: “There were quite a few growers who were working really hard to reduce the use of herbicides and pesticides. But the outside world – and certainly the more fanatic environmental organisations – pretended that the entire horticulture sector was spreading poison. Chrysanthemum growers, in particular, were hit hard. The opening of the Floriade festival in 2002 was disrupted by protesters, for example.” Registration doesn’t make companies more environmentally friendly. But it provides knowledge about the actual use of pesticides and herbicides. It enabled us to show what was really happening with growers who were working properly. It let us introduce nuances to the image the horticulture sector had. Talking to stakeholders helped.

Convincing bulb growers
“There were two sectors that were slow to see the usefulness of registration: bulb cultivation and tree cultivation. MPS-ABC is just as easy to use for outdoor cultivation as it is for cultivation under glass. There was simply a lack of conviction generally. Although there were certainly some bulb and tree cultivators who joined immediately,” Vis explains.

“The auctions paved the way for flower and plant growers to join MPS. They saw that the market was demanding it. Because of the auctions, the bulb growers finally joined as well. More and more bulbs were being produced in the Netherlands. Instead of dry bulbs, the Netherlands was exporting bulb flowers. The nurseries followed the auction. And then the bulb growers. We noticed that growers were inspiring each other. If one could manage with fewer herbicides and pesticides, the other wanted to too. Even if it was only because of the cost. Herbicides and pesticides aren’t cheap.”

Registration is now also common in bulb cultivation. In the first half of 2019, the acreage of MPS-ABC-certified bulbs increased by some 2,000 hectares to approximately 10,500 hectares, or 280 nurseries.

Established name
Hak: “MPS is an established name in the field of environmental certification. Over time, we have noticed that customers actually start asking for the certificates. It turns out to be worthwhile to invest in MPS environmental certification. In addition to MPS-ABC, we have also started MPS-GAP, which also sets requirements for business processes. This has helped us a lot with the organisational structure and that is perhaps the biggest plus for our company.”

Motivated from within
Hak considers intrinsic motivation important. “Consciousness should not become a bottleneck either. Pleasure in cultivation and love for the plants is paramount, so no unnecessary use of substances is a logical consequence. Since 2012, we have therefore also been MPS-GAP and MPS-SQ certified. MPS-GAP is often requested by our exporters. MPS-SQ is somewhat less demanded by customers, but it is good for us to know that we have properly arranged the working conditions for our ten employees and one working apprentice (BBL).”

It was not because the Van Veen family business ‘had such a green heart’ that Van Veen Gerbera joined MPS 25 years ago. Aad van Veen: “We mainly wanted to see if we were doing things better than others.”

We were quite fanatic in the first few years. Quite early on we formed an excursion group of colleagues who were participating in MPS. “Each week, we came together in the garden to compare the use of fertiliser, herbicides and pesticides. This enabled us to get to know our company better and to learn how to combat diseases and pests most efficiently. And it gave us an advantage at the big Dutch flower auction.”

“We mainly wanted to see if we were doing things better than others”

Further ahead
From the 1.5 hectares in Rijswijk in 1995, Van Veen Gerbera business has grown to 9.2 hectares over two locations in De Lier.

“We never stopped using MPS. It’s in our system. It’s not an option to stop registration. We’re now much further ahead than 25 years ago. In addition to MPS-A, we also have MPS-GAP, MPS-SQ, GRASP and MPS-ProductProof. We want to supply to large retail customers. They use lists of herbicides and pesticides they don’t want to find in the gerberas. Leaf samples are taken on-site four times a year, to monitor our use of herbicides and pesticides. The results are stored in a database at MPS, which customers can consult.”

Generating business
“We couldn’t work without MPS registration. Legislation is a lot stricter. Customers demand it. With MPS-ProductProof, we can once again differentiate ourselves as a company that has everything under control. This helps generate business. It also benefits our operation. Giving us more insight into what we’re doing. And it’s not much work, as long as you don’t let the registration beat you.

Paper from the fax machine ran all the way to the door

The first registrations and certification were a great success. Within one-and-a-half months, there were already 400 applications. The forms were sent in by post and by fax. This was really modern for the time. The success was overwhelming. After the first weekend of submissions, the paper from the fax machine ran all the way to the door. That wasn’t all: the memory lamp was flashing – more forms had come in! – Harold Beek