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“We are colleagues, not competitors”

Jan van Woerden was certified as an organic farmer in the province of Flevoland in 1999, after a three-year transition period. Working in the cluster of organic farms that this province of reclaimed land has become, Van Woerden values and appreciates the presence of his colleagues.

“We exchange a lot of knowledge here in our polder”, says Van Woerden, always aimed at improving the quality of products. “Some farmers are technically more savvy than others, so what we do is visit each other’s farms to see how new technologies and methods work and to learn from each other. We are not competitors, we are colleagues.”

This exchange of knowledge and information is vital to achieve the best possible quality. Many of the farmers also work with the same trading co-operative, or they share clients. “There are five of us here who share the same client for cauliflower”, says Van Woerden. “We stay in touch with the client and each other to make sure that our product matches the client’s guidelines as much as possible. This summer we even visited the German processing plant together.”

There used to be a time when consumers of organic farm products cared more about the environment than they did about the quality of their food, but those days are long past. Supermarkets played an important role in that development. The average consumer now expects organic veggies to be better than average. “Our carrots end up in German supermarkets and believe me: Aldi and Liddl will not sell inferior products”, says Van Woerden.

A number of new farms in Flevoland are about to be certified in 2010. Van Woerden hopes that his new colleagues will join the old-timers in their study groups. “Co-operation and exchange of knowledge is good for all of us”, he says.