Have you ever wondered what a plastic factory and a greenhouse production facility have in common? At first you may think this is an unusual combination, however for Lovochun Farms in China this is daily business. Victor Chen, Project Director, takes us on the journey of Lovochun from a plastic factory to a greenhouse production facility. Their farms can be considered as a real experience center, offering ‘self-picking strawberry services’ to their customers.
Lovochun is a relatively new company on the Chinese market for agriculture. Their journey started when the daughter of the plastic factory founder Ben Zhu indicated that she really wanted to eat strawberries. However in China strawberries were known as one of the most unclean produced fruits. A change was required, so Lovochun looked into business opportunities for the production of healthy food.
While the company started as a plastic factory, where they produced e.g. plastic trays and packaging for fruits, the first steps into horticulture were taken. Back in 2013 Ben and Victor visited the Netherlands together, to learn more about greenhouse production. It became Ben’s personal mission to produce healthy food in China, including strawberries, so his daughter could eat them as often as she wanted. That mission, that dream, became reality shortly afterwards. Just a year after their travel, the construction of the first Lovochun greenhouse has started in Taizhou. Nowadays, they have seven locations, and counting.
“Our Taizhou farm was our first generation. The design of the Taizhou farm had started in 2013, the construction was finished in 2015. We took three years to learn and gain experience, before the realization of the other locations. Nowadays we have different greenhouses around China, within various climate zones. For example in Taizhou, there is high humidity and in summer it is quite hot. So, how to maintain the optimal conditions in the greenhouse in order to grow healthy food? We had to learn, but with the support of Hoogendoorn Growth Management and their climate computer, we managed. At all locations, we have their computer installed and it supports us enormously in growing perfect vegetables and tasty strawberries under different climate conditions.”
Victor continues: “that is also the biggest advantage of the Hoogendoorn climate computer for Lovochun. The system measures all outside climate conditions and compares to the greenhouse climate conditions. Then, it takes actions so all equipment in the greenhouse work synchronically to create an optimum, homogeneous growth climate for the plants. The climate control is really powerful and much more than we expected. There is a reason why we have this system installed at all our locations!”
These different locations have been set-up by Lovochun in order to reach more consumers. The decision to produce locally was also made in order to produce environmental friendly. ”We produce green vegetables and also want to be a green company. If we produce locally, less transportation is required. That doesn’t only save us costs, but also reduces emission. But that’s not the only reason. A huge benefit with local for local food production is that customers can visit the project and can personally confirm the food they produce there is healthy. That’s why we offer the ultimate ‘self-picking experience’ for customers.”
According to Victor, the self-picking of strawberries is actually almost a tradition in some Asian countries. Lovochun welcomes about 150.000 visitors a year for their self-picking experience, at one location. In some weekends, they have more than 2000 people visiting their farm. “The locations are like a park, it is clean and relaxing. People come here for tourism. It is a complete day out, including playgrounds for the children and even dining options. At one of our locations, you can even have red lobster for dinner! Of course, accompanied by our vegetables. Afterwards, our visitors tell their friends and family and together they visit our greenhouse again. This really fits our culture, where family is very important.” Moreover, self-picking allows customers to pick their favorite strawberries, since some prefer the smaller ones and some the larger ones. But it is also a way to make consumers aware of what is required for healthy production. “People have to come and see by themselves how we grow. We show customers the added value of healthy produced food”.
Where strawberries are often eaten raw, with sugar or with whipped cream, Victor prefers frozen strawberry jam. “I eat much more strawberries since we grow them, before I ate them only once or twice! I think people should eat them without sugar or whipped cream. They are very tasty and sweet by themselves! But since I usually have a lot of strawberries, I decided to cook strawberry jam and freeze it so it could be used over a longer period of time. Once I ate the jam frozen, just to try it, and that’s becoming my favorite way to consume the strawberries. Especially in summer time!”