A while ago we received a call from a Swedish grower who taught us something new.
What did we learn? Well, if you want to convert a conventional orchard to an organic one, it takes three years and during the transition period there is a risk that the entire harvest will fall through the cracks. How can it do that, you might wonder. Here are some points:
- You cannot sell the fruit as ORGANIC as the conversion is not complete.
- You cannot sell the fruit to conventional packers as the shelf life of the fruit is not as long given that you use eco-approved spraying methods.
- If you still manage to sell the fruit as conventional fruit, the profitability is incredibly poor given that you use organically approved growing methods, but which you cannot take into account in your pricing during the conversion period.
Quickly and easily finding a food manufacturer who wants to buy 100 tons of pears and is willing to pay for it requires sales power, something growers usually don't have.
This way, it can sometimes be cheaper not to harvest at all and let perfectly good, fantastic fruit rot away. At the same time, we import pears from all corners of the world.
The call we received was about a harvest of 100 tons of pears that is at risk of being thrown away due to the transition.
We gathered around the drawing board to find a solution and the result was a new baginbox. A salvaged pear and apple must.
