Newsletter Tomatoworld December 2022

The year 2023 is nearing its end. It was another exciting year. The first few months we were still limited in travel and hardly received any visitors. Fortunately, when the restrictions were loosened, we saw an increase in visitor numbers. This year was the second year of our field lab Data Driven Growing & Rototics and it was nice to see that more and more partners know how to find each other here. We would like to encourage you to intensify this in the new year. Learn from each other, work with each other, discover, demonstrate and bring relationships. We love the commotion.

Next year we will also be working even more with student teams. It's so cool to see how these guys and girls are working on assignments that can advance greenhouse horticulture. Let us know if your company has an assignment as well. At least another hackathon will take place in November.

It is worth mentioning that the field lab concept is considered so important for the development of the Greenport Horti Campus that the Province of South Holland, the Municipality of Westland and the MRDH wholeheartedly support the developments towards field lab 2.0 and the flying start towards NextGen. What this means in interpretation you will hear later.

Finally, I extend a word of thanks to my wonderful team. Joyce and Esraa who have just been on the job for a year but have everything under their belts in the office. Käthe who has been the indispensable link in the administration since September. Nico, our new grower and 'Malle Pietje' who together with Conny takes care of the cultivation in the greenhouse. And not to forget all our volunteers who are there for help, tours and catering. Without them and without you as partners and friends no Tomatoworld.

In summary: Despite corona, improvising and adjusting, I look back on 2022 with a satisfied feeling. Here are the highlights.

Happy holidays and all the best in 2023!

Miranda van den Ende

On thursday the 1 of December the tomato plants were dragged out of the greenhouse with man and woman power. We thank LetsGrow.com and Hoogendoorn for their help. All the plants are out of the greenhouse. And then you see what kind of atmosphere a plant can create. Plants are like friends!

Now the rest of the greenhouse will be cleaned in December and Januari. We are already looking forward to the new growing season when the beautiful young tomato plants can come into the greenhouse and give Tomatoworld new color.

After the summer, we had a really busy period. Many visitors from all over the world travelled to Tomatoworld for a tour or visit. Last year we had around 4,000 visitors. After corona, this is a nice number. We also had several activities and events last half year.

Events Q3 / Q4
In September the Drone event took place which was organized by TU Delft and attracted around 200 visitors. This brought a lot of media attention and put Tomatoworld in the picture.

In October we organized a growers event in cooperation with Letsgrow, Plant Empowerment, Glastuinbouw Nederland and Kas als Energiebron. This event also attracted a lot of interest and we had a room full of 130 people. Would you like to read or see more information about this Grower Event? Then visit our Dutch Horti Platform - Content and Courses (press the button below get acces to the Dutch Horti Platform).

Other activities
In addition to the growers event we had a lot of great activities during the month of October. For example, in Dutch Food Week we had a private guided tour through Tomatoworld. This attracted 15 visitors who found it very interesting how horticulture could be so innovative. During the fall break, there was a tour for the children of partners. There were 21 children from various Tomatoworld partners along with their parents who attended this children's tour of Tomatoworld.

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Greenwear
Wednesday, November 16, Tomatoworld our MARCOM meeting took place at our partner Greenwear. Roland van Gulik gave us a warm welcome and a delicious lunch and told the great story of Greenwear. Roland started in a men's fashion business and now in the corporate clothing business with the special brand Greenwear, clothing for horticulture.

But not just any clothing for horticulture! At Greenwear they care about the whole process from A - Z.

The concept is proven and they have demonstrated to provide clothing with the corresponding virus-free washing programs. The benefits:
• All known viruses are eliminated from the clothing by washing at low temperature.
• Saving of water
• Satisfied employees
• 45% saving of costs!

A great impact program that Greenwear (jouwimpact.nl) is also working on is a special t-shirts where you REALLY save water and make it available in projects through Made Blue. And saving water is something we also stand for as Tomatoworld. Because 2.5% of the water in the world is fresh water. The rest is salt water, 70% is in ice caps and 30% is in the ground. Only 1% of this water is available for human consumption. So then you understand that we have to be careful with our water.

Koppert
Together with the guides of Tomatoworld we visited our partner Koppert to expand our knowledge. Koppert controls pests and diseases and optimizes pollination through biological control. Think of bumblebees, insects and micro biology. Koppert is unique in micro biology. Everything Koppert works with comes from nature.

Bram Klapwijk and David van Dijk from Koppert told us more about Koppert and took us through the Koppert's Experience Centre on their behalf. They have a beautiful experiance center where you will take a fascinating and interactive tour through their world of sustainable growing.

At Tomatoworld 🍅 the Koppert bumblebees are active for pollination. Bumblebees do this best in tomato cultivation. Every two week koppert's consultant, David van Dijk, is in contact with our grower, Nico Ammerlaan to discuss the biology within the greenhouse and how to act. This is where close cooperation and communication is important. An example is that the grower would like to remove leaves so that more light can reach the crop, the consultant wants the leaves to remain for biology. They agreed with each other to remove the leaf from the plant, but to leave it under the plant so that the good insects then remain alive and can do their work.

New Partners
As of January 2023, we are pleased to welcome several new partners:

PAR+ / Physee

The first horticulture spray coating that brings diffusivity without losing grow light, by converting unused UV into PAR light.

Metor Systems

Meteor Systems produces and distributes complete growing systems for indoor and outdoor horticulture anywhere in the world. These include growing systems, irrigation systems, pipe rail supports, bay wide supports, DFT, growing rack systems and fruit covers.

Tomatech

Focusing exclusively on the development of innovative, superior quality, hybrid tomatoes. We use cutting-edge molecular technology combined with classical breeding techniques to tailor our seeds to deliver innovative, productive and flavorful tomatoes that exceed our customers expectations. Was a friend of Tomatoworld and will become a partner as of Janauri 2023.

Departure of partners
Unfortunately, the following partners are leaving us at the end of this year:

Gremon
BasF
Rabobank
Eurofiber
Ruitenburg
Cau Futong

Hopefully we may greet them again in the future as a partner or visitor to Tomatoworld. We thank them for the cooperation and their support to Tomatoworld last year/years.

Partner credits
Each partner has their own credits for free use of one of our meeting rooms or a tour. Some partners take full advantage of this, but not everyone. Be welcome to come to Tomatoworld with customers or employees, for example. Make sure you always register your visit via reservering@tomatoworld.nl .

Right now the greenhouse is completely empty, but by the end of January the greenhouse and its field lab will be back in full operation. The new plants are expected to arrive Jan. 25 at Tomatoworld.

Last year we had 1 meeting with a number of partners active within the fieldlab to get more in touch with each other and discuss certain topics. This was a nice and good consultation. Together we have discussed having these consultations once a quarter with specific topics.

The first fieldlab consultation will take place Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023 at 10 a.m. at Tomatoworld. We ask all partners who use the Fieldlab or visit our greenhouse regularly to attend. During this meeting we will go over all the hygiene measures that everyone must adhere to, the Data protocol and clothing regulations. We will also talk about assignments for students, 5 G and Cybersecurity.

Do you have your own topics that fit the fieldlab consultations? Would you like to join the fieldlab consultations? Then email us using the button below.

Do you already know Tomatoworld's on-line platform with a lot of information on horticulture?

Tomatoworld APP
Tomatoworld uses the Dutch Horti Platform app for communication about events, content, trainings etc. If you are not registered yet, create an account now and don't miss a thing.

What can you find in the app.
The community feed is the heart of the app, where you as a user can enter and communicate with others and make connections. Here you will be sucked directly into current conversations and news.
Switch here also between the community, groups, the event calendar, your personal inbox or click through to the e-learning environment. Here you get an overview of the content of programs (video, audio, and text lessons, attachments and even tests / quizzes!) And you can see personal progress includes a beautiful calendar so your members can see what's coming up in your community at all times.

The app can be downloaded via google play or via the apple store
Download the 'Huddle' app from the Playstore and the Apple store

Good news by the way: the old app you could only use in the Netherlands and Belgium, the new app is international. In addition, as a user, you can now choose whether you want to use the app in English or Dutch.

I am 61 years old and married to Marlène for over 38 years. We have 3 sons; Niels, Pim and Koen. I was born in Maasland, later moved to Naaldwijk and now we live in de Lier.

After elementary school I went to high school and then to Rmtus in De Lier. After that I went into gardening at home, from 1982 I had a greenhouse farm. First together with my father, later continued alone. First we grew tomatoes and in the fall cucumbers. Later I started growing tomatoes all year round. I had this company until 2002, after that I worked for several companies in horticultural supply. After 2010 I returned to horticulture, sometimes as location manager, sometimes as cultivation manager.

In the upcoming years at Tomatoworld, I hope to contribute in the further development of data-driven growing.

I am 53 years old, born and raised in Monster at the Zwartendijk (horticulture daughter) and now living in 's-Gravenzande since 5 years. I live together with Jan and our two dogs, and around our house it is a colorful mix of chickens, geese, ducks and pigeons. So a colorful place and lots of activity.

I am really an outdoor person, can intensely enjoy the beach, forest and nature. Not surprisingly, my hobbies are cycling and hiking.

I have always worked full-time in a secretarial and administrative support management position. I love being of service to management and the board. I also enjoy supporting my direct colleagues, so that together we form a top team for the organization.

It was a very well-considered decision to apply for a position at Tomatoworld. The work attracted me, but the deciding factor was the fact that it was at Tomatoworld. I knew the company in its role; an information and education center for (Dutch) greenhouse farming, progressive in its ideas.

In addition, and perhaps most importantly, I love the sector, its products and especially the people working in it. No-nonsense in action, but with state-of-the-art work processes and products to walk the world market.

Tomatoworld also faces (global) challenge in 2023, but I am happy to contribute to take this new period to the next level with the current enthusiastic team and the many volunteers. Tomatoworld is ready for the new year and I am convinced that it will soon be a success with our completely redesigned high-tech fieldlab. Together with our loyal partners!

The end of the year 2022 is upon us. We look back on a beautiful and eventful year. Full of good energy we go into 2023 and together we will make it another great year with great events and activities. And of course the further development of our Fieldlab in the field of Data Driven growing.

Would you already like to make your reservation for a tour, event or meeting at Tomatoworld? No problem, make a reservation in advance via reservering@Tomatoworld.nl.

We wish everyone beautiful Christmas days and on to a great 2023!

Chrismas greetings
Team Tomatoworld