Russia's invasion of Ukraine earlier this year has challenged Polish vegetable processor, Springfresh. Not only did energy costs spike, but it has also become tough to find workers. "Even before the war broke out, we had many Ukrainian employees. Suddenly, the men had to go to war, and we got an influx of refugees. That had quite an effect," begins director Derreck Bac.
Derrick Bac
He started the company, which cleans and processes vegetables like onions, shallots, radishes, kohlrabi, and Brussels sprouts, 15 years ago. Recently, a major focus has been upgrading products like onions' residual streams. "We already make onion puree and pickled onions and are now busy developing a powder. That's no mean feat. Of late, market demand has been noticeably shifting from products coming from China and India to local products. When you can produce these products in Europe, they're considered differently, and the price is no longer the sole deciding factor."
Brussels Sprouts rice
"These new products open new sales channels. We've always operated in the short shelf-life segment with our fresh products. These new products mean we can enter a completely different part of the food market. We're getting orders for products with a shelf life of a year or more, like purees for soups and sauces. Until now, we've mainly supplied supermarkets and the hospitality industry. However, with these processed products, you deal far more with food and meat processors, sauce producers, and salad makers. We already have contracts with our pickles and purees. We're also developing plenty of new products like onion chutneys and spreads, but these aren't available commercially yet," says Derreck.
mash cebula żółta
Springfresh, which gets most of its onions from the Netherlands, is struggling to source these for processing. "They're expensive, and I wonder if there will be enough available until the end of the season. It's a difficult buying market, but neither is it an easy selling market. You're negotiating very different price levels with customers. Most of them aren't prepared for or prefer to ignore that. Eventually, that too will work out; clients need products, after all."
Dutch buyers form an important share of Springfresh's sales. Nonetheless, in the days to come, Derreck sees opportunities, especially outside that country. "In particular, the German and Scandinavian markets are growing. I also see prospects for more sales in the Polish market. Many Dutch people think Sulęcin, where our factory is, is very far. Not so. We're only 750 kilometers from Amsterdam. Sulęcin is right across the German border, 100km east of Berlin. All the trucks we load today reach customers tomorrow," explains Derreck.
Red Onion Chutney
"Besides adding value to our waste streams, we're also fully committed to utilizing the heat our cooling cells release. We use that to dry products. Along with upgrading our residual flows, that's a good example of circular entrepreneurship." The processed onion range has consisted of peeled, diced, and sliced onions for years. "We want to focus even more on automation in the coming years. Optical sorting is the next step; we're still discussing that."
Springfresh has, thus, already moved its Brussels sprout washing and processing to the Netherlands. "We can now distinguish slightly spotted sprouts from rotten ones. That offers many opportunities to add value to the product. And there are plenty of ways to add value to Brussels sprouts' residual streams, like burgers, pesto, pizza bases, and adding leaves to meal salads. I recently attended an event with food bloggers and was genuinely surprised by the many uses they see for our products. In this way, we can use the whole sprout and have hardly any waste," concludes Derreck.
Derreck Bac
d.bac@springfresh.eu
Springfresh Group
Tel: +48 603 598 954
D.Bac@springfreshgroup.nl
www.springfreshgroup.pl