Vos Fruithandel

How the business began

Gerard: “Our business consists of raspberries, redcurrants, pears, apples and gooseberries. We grow the soft fruit fully protected. A third of the redcurrants are under rain covers, a third in plastic tunnels and a third in glasshouses, so that we can spread the cultivation with the aim of growing redcurrants all year round. We also grow the gooseberries in the plastic tunnels. Half of the raspberries are grown in glasshouses and the other half under closed rain covers. From mid-May to mid-June is our busiest period. The focus is now on soft fruit, but that is not how the business started. After the war, my father started as a farmhand on a mixed farm, which he took over in 1950.

In the end, my father continued with fruit only, and I have been involved in the fruit farm from an early age. In 1979, I graduated from the fruit-growing school in Tiel and a year later I joined my parents’ partnership. Four years later, my brother joined the business too. Partly because Elstar and Jonagold were doing so well at the time, it was possible for the four of us to run the business.”