In-Co

Veiling Hoogstraten has been selling strawberries since it was founded. An important step in the growth of Veiling Hoogstraten towards a further concentration of the strawberry supply was the collaboration from 1996 onwards with the Profruco auction in Sint-Niklaas ( East- Flanders, Belgium) and in 1997 with CLTV Zundert ( Northern Brabant, The Netherlands). Strawberry arrivals amounted to 4.100 tons in 1986; 8.600 tons in 1996 and exceeded 20.000 tons in 2006: production has increased fivefold over the last two decades.

At the beginning of 2006 the collaboration between the three partners was confirmed by the founding of the In-Co cooperative; in so doing the participants clearly demonstrated their desire to continue down the same path and to expand their collaboration to other forms of collaboration and other produce.

In-Co has a voluminous and diverse offer:

• 20.00 tons strawberries
• 40.000 tons tomatoes
• 11.000 tons bell peppers
• 20.000.000 cucumbers

or well over 110.000 tons of produce.

After one year of operations In-Co is now operating at full capacity.

The board of In-Co is constituted of 3 members of each associate auction, the chairman, an administrator and the director. This board of nine meets every six weeks and discusses the next steps. The various sub domains- administration, product and quality, commercialization an logistics- are reviewed individually and progress is discussed. Patrick Thoen, the chairman of Veiling Profruco, is also the chairman of In-Co: the chairman of Veiling Hoogstraten and Veiling Zundert serve as vice-chairmen; Gaston Opdekamp, the director of Veiling Hoogstraten serves as director.

Concrete results:

• Drawing up of one GGO file per 15/09/2006
• Use of the same accounting software
• Integration of the administration with the emphasis on smooth communication
• Joint purchasing policy for packaging
• Exchange of rolling stock
• Joint consultation and training as regard skills of quality staff
• Harmonization application of specifications and certifications at each participating auction
• Joint commercial approach of customers
• Joint approach of communication to growers via In-Contact

In 2007 this trend is continued with the emphasis on drawing up a clear profile for In-Co, investing in sound and adapted infrastructure and the express presentation of In-Co to all growers and costumer involved.