The whole point of having a plant passport is the traceability of theproduct . consort to Gerard van Langen , director , and owner of Amigo Plant , who are now sounding the proverbial alarum , this is also achieved by make all the growers mark their skunk with a cultivator number . “ This way , we make the locoweed manufacturer nock the pots with a growers number , without gender identification , solving all the job while still keep the same traceability ” , he indite in his letter to Greenhouse Horticulture Netherlands and the minister of agriculture , rector Schouten . He plead for the foresighted - term , multi - year cultivating and a one year conversion period .
Van Langen has written the letter to describe the problematic situation surround the plant passport in his own company , assume he is not the only one who is get problem with it .
Many varietiesAt Amigo Plant , they develop succulent plant life . “ For a succulent grower to have a successful byplay , you necessitate to originate unlike types of succulent in different skunk sizes . Do you have , like most plant growers in the Netherlands , a monoculture , one plant variety in 1 pot sizing , then you are not an interesting succulent agriculturalist for your costumers and your fellowship wo n’t last long ” , Van Langen write .
At the beginning of December , all industrial plant need to be provided with a plant passport . This is a required material body of identification for every plant life and is part of the new EU - Plant Health Regulations . The heritage of every plant needs to be trackable , and the gender of the plants want to be known as well .
" I understand very well that product need to be trackable in this day and long time . What I do n’t understand is that we require to do this in a way that is unimaginable for us ” , Van Langen says . Amigo Plant cultivates in 8 unlike pot size of it , around 70 unlike succulent from 10 different sex . The plant life are potted by 18 plant simple machine in 10 different locations .
Pure rabidness and unacceptable tooEven if all the pots at Amigo Plant would get marked in progress with the correct flora passport on the correct pot , then each location would need around 80 dissimilar pallets with pot , Van Langen calculates . “ Also , when potting the plant , we shift between genders daily , so we would have to shift the pots in the machine daily as well . This would be total madness and impossible to carry out . ”
There is also the possibility to put the plant passport on the pots when pot the plants , which can be done when putting the stool on a conveyor swath . “ However , Amigo Plant also has multiple industrial plant auto where the pots get automatically place in trays , 15 at a time in three rows . Here it would be impossible to put the plant passport on the pot . When we change to another gender when potting the plant , then the stage setting of the ‘ printing machine ’ also need to be changed , also adjusting the 18 car we have would also be very costly . ”
Other optionsThere is also the possibility to place the plant passport upon delivery , Van Langen retain . “ Every week , Amigo plant delivers around 450,000 flora . The minimum price for providing a sticker on a locoweed is 5 euro cents . So to put plant passports on the plenty this fashion will be about € 22,500 per calendar week , and we would need 31 spare proletarian each week as well . It keeps on getting more challenging to find good employees , and next yr the price for labour will increase enormously . This will then also not be a good selection .
Then there is the choice of providing the plant with the plant recommendation via laser when delivering them , but how do you organise in 10 dissimilar locations . If this option is choose , a lot of extra shipping will be involve because then 100 % of the plants need to be processed in a central topographic point . But even then , it will bring a monolithic increment in labor movement costs and will remain technically unmanageable due to the plethora of options in industrial plant sex and the different combinations of plants we return . ”
Contradictory obligations"It ’s strange that in this 24-hour interval and age , where we have extensive discussions about plastic , particulate matter , atomic number 7 emissions , road overload , and Department of Labor shortage , we are now essentially being draw to increase all of these emission , overload , and shortages ” , Van Langen posit .
For more information : Amigo Plantwww.amigoplant.nl
Gerard van Langen[email protect ]
