Euro Plant Tray from a grower's perspective Amigo Plant speaking out

Step by step, Royal FloraHolland is working to make logistic supplies more sustainable. This includes participation in Euro Plant Tray, an initiative to introduce a multi-use plant tray series. How do growers view this initiative? In this series 'Euro Plant Tray from a grower's perspective' we let growers have their say: this time Jacco Huibers, salesmanager at Amigo Plant.

Amigo Plant focuses on the cultivation and breeding of various varieties of succulents. The family business from Heerhugowaard recently won prizes at IPM Essen with the Aloe Medivera®, an exclusive variant of the traditional Aloe Vera.

Looking together for solutions
Amigo Plant is part of a regular group of growers with whom Royal FloraHolland regularly discusses Euro Plant Tray and the challenges involved. Jacco (in het picture) puts first that the company is very keen to become more sustainable and is positive about the initiative. ‘In doing so, we need to look for solutions together, so we don't all have to reinvent the wheel on our own. That's also why we joined this leading group fairly quickly.’

‘We are just curious to see how it will now work out in practice, because that is still a bit abracadabra for us from Euro Plant Tray at the moment. We also don't yet know anything about things like rental, returns and cleaning. To be honest, I would have expected Euro Plant Tray to have some more information about that by now.’

‘You can already make large groups more sustainable’
‘I have spoken to a number of customers and it is not yet clear to them either. I know that one hardware store has agreed to work with it, but that there are also large parties that are not yet ready. There are also many pot sizes that don't fit into the developed series, but that's also logical, you can't develop a reusable tray for every size. Packaging suppliers have come up with so many different models for a reason. So when it comes to the standard sizes, I am very positive; you can already handle a lot with these and are therefore already preserving large groups. The niche is not yet succeeding, but you shouldn’t make it too difficult for yourself either.”

“With ourselves, it won't be very large numbers. We already use the Floratino plant tray, also a sustainable multi-use tray. That way, we also contribute.”

Perspective from Royal FloraHolland
As a chain, we would like to work more and more sustainably. In addition, introduction of legislation also encourages this. From our position in the chain, we want to facilitate initiatives such as Euro Plant Tray so that our growers and buyers have the opportunity to make use of it. In this way, parties in the chain can choose what best suits their path in sustainability. The multi-use Euro Plant trays, which are now in development, do not replace all trays or boxes 1-to-1. But it does address the need to reduce waste and to package more sustainably.

Exactly when the trays will be available on the market is not yet clear; expected now is end of third quarter 2024 in a limited edition. Customers can start renting trays from Euro Plant Tray (comparable to the CC material model). Royal FloraHolland will facilitate the tray in a similar way to CCs. We are currently setting up our systems and physical hubs for a successful introduction.