Harvest House, a major co-operative drawing together around 90 vegetable producers in the Westland region of the Netherlands, has been forced to reorganise part of its business following the loss of European subsidy funding and the departure of a small number of growers.
Speaking to eurofruit, a spokesperson for the company confirmed that two of its senior management staff were released with immediate effect last week, a direct consequence of the EU's decision to withdraw Common Marketing Organisation (CMO) funding.
'Because we didn't get those annual subsidies from the EU, the two positions were no longer needed,' the spokesperson said. 'The CMO money was to be used for marketing by Harvest House and for product development by the growers.'
The withdrawal of EU money follows the recent break-up of FresQ, one of the Netherlands' largest vegetable producer organisations, which in September was found by the European Court of Justice to have breached EC conditions on producer organisation funding and to have therefore wrongfully received €22m in CAP-funded subsidies between 2006 and 2008.
FresQ was ordered to repay the money it accepted for 2004-2007, although the Dutch government, which allocated the funding in the first place, has since said it will appeal the decision.
'We've known since November [the subsidy] wouldn't be coming and in fact most grower co-operatives in the Netherlands didn't receive it this year,' the spokesperson continued, suggesting that the on-going simplication of the European CMO for fruit and vegetables might see financial support for producers decline further. 'In the future, we expect there to be more problems and possibly more fines.'
Fork in the road
The various grower groups that used to sell their products through FresQ had apparently seen the break-up coming and opted to form two new co-operatives: Novitura, bringing together Rainbow – which produces a broad range of products including peppers, cucumbers, aubergines, lettuce and tomatoes – and PaprikaNL (peppers); and Door, backed by Green Diamonds (cucumbers), Purple Pride (aubergines) and Prominent (tomatoes).
In October last year, Novitura ditched what was ultimately a work-in-progress name to become Harvest House.
Then in December, five pepper growers departed Harvest House to form their own co-operative, PapriCo, which is now a member of Door.
Harvest House's main business is selling and marketing tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, chillies and cucumbers grown in glasshouses across more than 860ha – representing around half of the 1,400ha that were previously part of FresQ.
With projected turnover of €500m for 2013, the group remains very much a powerhouse of the Dutch vegetable business.
