Where are we now
Every grower wants strong plants that are free from pests and diseases. To achieve that, they use natural predators preventively to protect against harmful insects. We require our growers to use at least 75% natural predators and green products to protect their crops against pests and diseases. But sometimes that’s not enough. In that case, a grower may need to protect their crop with a chemical product. Growers always do this locally. This ensures organic control agents can be spared.
In 2019, 72% of the package of crop protection products our growers use consists of natural predators and green of low-risk products. In 2020, 95% of our growers comply with the Planetproof standard for the quantity of active ingredients per hectare.
Goals for 2025
The package of green crop protection products with natural enemies and green or low-risk products.By 2025, 98% of our growers will meet the Planetproof standard
for the quantity of active ingredients per hectare.
- The proportion of crop protection products with green or low-risk products in the package is growing.
- Growers United aims to achieve 95% by 2027. The actual share depends on the availability of green resources and natural enemies and on the types of diseases and pests that occur.
How do we tackle this
There are many different ongoing crop protection initiatives within our cooperative. Here are a few examples.
planet
proof
At Growers United, all our aubergine, sweet pepper, and cucumber growers and more and more of our tomato growers are PlanetProof certified. This is an independent quality mark for more sustainable products. It proves that you are buying a product that has been produced more sustainably and is therefore better for nature, the environment, the climate, and animals.
bumblebees, are our most
industrious workers
Our tomatoes, aubergines, cucumbers, and sweet peppers are also known as fruit vegetables. Every fruit starts out as a flower. Bumblebees pollinate every flower seven days a week without missing out a single one. In this way they ensure perfect pollination, which in turn results in the most beautiful fruits.
greening the
way we grow
There is a clear growth in the use of green crop protection products on the total acreage. At Growers United, we were running a pilot entitled ”˜Growing Greener’. The aim of this pilot is to enable us to grow green all year round, in other words, without the use of chemical crop protection. In this pilot, our tomato grower Marcel van den Berg succeeded in using no chemicals at all in his greenhouse. He used natural predators preventively and only used green crop protection products.