Advisory

Thanks to innovation, Dutch horticultural technology is at an unprecedentedly high level internationally. The challenges currently facing the world have made it more important than ever to focus on innovation. Controlled-environment agricultural (CEA) production has the potential to make a major contribution to global food security and food safety. With 70 years of successful innovation under its belt, Van der Hoeven has been instrumental in the enormous progress Dutch horticulture has made since the very beginning.

Our R&D department is continuously pushing boundaries, while our in-house specialists combine expertise in various fields, from plant physiology and mechanical systems to climate, water and energy. We collaborate intensively with renowned knowledge institutes, such as Wageningen University, TU Delft and TNO. Our goal is to be and remain a pioneer in the development of innovative and efficient high-tech solutions, with a strong focus on circularity.

Whichever of our systems you choose, you are assured of a state-of-the-art solution. We have several patented concepts, including concepts for greenhouse construction and mobile growing systems. We are also making major advances in automation and digitalization. Van der Hoeven participates in research into autonomous cultivation. Artificial intelligence is enabling growers to make better decisions, while the increasing use of data is making business operations more efficient. 

The challenge facing Van der Hoeven is to achieve maximum production with minimum impact on the environment, or in other words, to use as few natural resources as possible. Thanks to our innovative approach, we are able to achieve this.

Cultivating crops with minimal environmental impact begins with designing a location-specific and crop-specific project. We take the location’s existing possibilities into account and utilize the opportunities offered by alternative energy sources, such as geothermal heat, residual heat from industry or biomass and underground thermal energy storage. There are also innovative solutions for reusing water, thereby retaining valuable fertilizers, or for using waste water to irrigate crops.

Insight into our footprint
CEA production has major environmental benefits over open-field crops. We use our specialist knowledge of every aspect of sustainability to ensure that limiting the environmental impact is part of each project, and as early as the advisory stage we already provide our clients with some insight into the final footprint of their project. We calculate this not only for the operational phase, but for the entire life cycle of the greenhouse. We even include the CO2 emissions and water use in the phase preceding delivery. 

Implementing an optimal project starts with listening carefully to your wishes, assessing the opportunities realistically and being honest with you about what is not feasible. This is one of Van der Hoeven’s strengths. We do so much more than deliver turnkey horticulture projects. As a full-service provider, our added value becomes apparent right from the start. 

There are many aspects to our commitment. We prioritize good communication, and designs are always developed in close collaboration with our clients. Our commitment does not end when the plan for your project is delivered. Setting up a CEA production business from scratch requires expertise that is not always available locally, but it is available from Van der Hoeven. Our cultivation specialists will quickly familiarize your team with all the various aspects of the project, and we are never far away because we provide training and knowledge sessions for our clients around the world. 

For Van der Hoeven, commitment also means caring about our employees’ working conditions. Besides ensuring a safe and healthy workplace, both at our offices and at production sites, we also want them to enjoy their work. We believe in personal growth and long-term deployability.

We have been active in the international greenhouse business for 70 years, and we apply the same enterprising vision to your project. We will give you our honest opinion about whether it is feasible. We will draw up a number of scenarios to demonstrate the consequences of specific choices – from the construction stage and the operational stage to the entire life cycle of a greenhouse.

As entrepreneurs, we look at all the aspects that are important for the commercial success of a project. We go further than just cultivation and techniques. We use a range of financial strategies to illustrate how decisions will play out, so your project will not only be profitable directly after delivery, but also for many years to come.

The first thing that you want when investing in a CEA production business is certainty: the certainty that a partner will correctly interpret your ideas and wishes, and the certainty that you are guaranteed a return on your investment. At Van der Hoeven, we can give you that certainty.

We have built a global portfolio over the last 70 years, growing to become a major international supplier. We supply greenhouses and technical systems, but above all we are a knowledge provider, with all the in-house expertise to help you run your business successfully. We are driven by innovation, but only when a new discovery proves its added value in practice.

Quality is assured
Having all the necessary disciplines in-house enables us to keep the entire process, from orientation to completion, as efficient as possible. Thanks to our close ties with regular suppliers, we are also able to keep a tight grip on the planning. We have objective proof of the quality of our work in the form of HortiQ, an international quality management system based on ISO 9001. And as an illustration of customer satisfaction, many of our customers return to us whenever they have new projects.