Organic Apple Juice at De Nijensteen via GoedSap BV

GoedSap® of Theo & Zongo is on the market in four flavours and is full of organic apple juice as well as Fairtrade and organic tropical fruit juices. The apples for GoedSap® are grown, freshly squeezed and pasturized on De Nijensteen premises. GoedSap BV closely cooperates with African farmers and producers, like Adama Zongo from Burkina Faso. He symbolizes the African producers that provide juices for GoedSap®.

Background

When De Nijensteen was bought, including one of the first and the oldest half-standard pear orchards in the Netherlands, the board of d.o.b foundation had dreams of a fully organic farm. Unfortunately, it appeared that the pears could not be cultivated organically. The age of the trees and the manner of common manuring and crop protection during all those years had made it impossible.

Then what? Sacrificing 50 years of cultural heritage, so characteristic of the local IJsselstreek, was not an option. The best solution seemed to be a combination of the common pear orchard with a new organic apple orchard. Thus the base was founded for a new corporation and cooperating partner of d.o.b foundation and De Nijensteen: GoedSap BV.

Goals

GoedSap BV aims for:

1. innovative development and research for the organic fruit growing sector;
2. a positive economic result, so money will keep flowing for innovation;
3. stimulate a varied rural economy in the region and incite business activities and employment in the region (the best promotion for organic agriculture, is to prove that profits can be made);
4. fairtrade, also for European farmers;
5. development of a regional product, also by making the juice press installation available to private and colleague fruit farmers;
6. international cooperation with African fruit farmers and therewith stimulating economic development in Africa;
7. preserving the farm and cultural heritage of De Nijensteen via GoedSap BV.

Sustainability

• Weed control is a huge problem in organic agriculture and weeds are the main cause of sickness in fruit farming. But that’s not all, because the weeds also tap nutrients from the soil. The planned innovative applications in the field of weed control could be of importance to fruit farming in general and also mean sustainable improvement;
• control over the soil temperature by means of soil covering plates: cooler in the summer and warmer during the winter, means better growth of the crops;
• the plates ensure a better humidity retention so that irrigation is necessary less often;
• by striving for economic profit, initiatives of everyone at the farm remain necessary. The innovative culture that grows out of this ensures that the agricultural company continues to develop and grows with the challenges of the times.

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Partners

GoedSap BV's management is in the hands of Theo Hoogeveen who also has been in charge of the realization of the new apple orchard. Of origin Theo is a farmer, a multifaceted entrepreneur and always focused on finding innovative solutions. Theo works in close cooperation with Global Fruit, a sales and marketing organization for Fairtrade products, and contracting firm Arnold Bosgoed. Bareld Kootstra of Global Fruit is in charge of the purchase of the tropical fruit juices and coordinates sales and marketing. The cultivation of the apples is in the hands of Arnold Bosgoed.

Kruidenier and Albron
Right from the start, two parties embraced GoedSap BV. Peter Kruidenier of Kruidenier Foodservices and Henk Voormolen of the largest independent caterer in The Netherlands, Albron. Since then they have shown their personal and professional enthusiasm to help make GoedSap® a success. At present GoedSap® is available to the catering industry via Kruidenier Foodservices. The four flavours are available in small bottles in a few dozen Albron restaurants at organizations with a passion for sustainable and fair trade products.

Results so far

• The apple orchard with 40,000 apple trees Rajka, Santana and Topaz on six hectares of soil is operational;
• the press is operational and is used on the premises of De Nijensteen yearly;
• GoedSap® (Good Juice) has been launched in four flavours.

Issues

GoedSap BV is looking for solutions to these issues:

• How do we find the right sales channels?
• How and where do we advertise?
• How to put this product in the market?

Investment

Euro 1.100.000,-

Duration

From june 2006

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