The challenges are many. Today’s grower requires many resources and a lot of knowledge to keep going in the world of greenhouse farming. The grower not only needs to know everything about tomatoes as an entrepreneur but must also be familiar with the energy market, environmental engineering,computer control, personnel policy and logistics. This is asking quite a bit. To this we should also add that the world of the grower is characterised by strict environmental criteria, an economy of scale and critical consumers. The Dutch government wants greenhouse farming to be more environmentally friendly. At the same time, growers wish to stand up to international competition and keep the cost price as low as possible.

Economies of scale in greenhouse farming have, therefore, become a real trend since the 1990s. In 1980 there were more than 15,700 greenhouse farming companies in the Netherlands but by 2007 this number had been reduced to 7,800. While the number of entrepreneurs went down, the number of farmed hectares under glass increased.Many of the current tomato cultivating companies are, in fact, joint ventures between professional partners. This creates sizeable and versatile companies with an extensive workforce. Not only production employees but also medium and higher management staff, technical staff and quality controllers can be found in such companies.The shortage in the Netherlands in the area of production employees has meant that more and more often Eastern European employees are being used the last few years. Specialised employment agencies provide these people with work and often even accommodation.Just as is the case with other entrepreneurs, growers are subject to enormous risks such as glass, storm and crop damage. They and their employees also, however, run risks with regard to disease, occupationalaccidents and, in the worst case, disability. The risk of an unstable energy market can now also be added to this list.

This demands consultants who know and have mastered the sector at least as well as the growers themselves. The consultants must be partners with whom the entrepreneurs can talk about progress, new opportunities, funding, insurances and personal risks.Since banks, insurance companies, the government and pressure groups benefit from greenhouse farming being able to produce successfully, environmentally friendly and sustainably, these parties have experts in house who assist growers with advice and financial resources, for example, in the form of subsidies.
Growers do not have to face things on their own. Support is also provided from another corner. Both Holland Produce Promotion and the Productschap Tuinbouw (Commodity Board for Horticulture) make available a lot of time, money and manpower to perform research, to make technical innovations possible and to lobby the government and abroad. The sector is able to still drive up production in part thanks to these efforts and, at the same time, to continue to lead internationally.