Yesterday, REO Veiling and Coöperatie Hoogstraten surprised those in the fruit and vegetable world by announcing they are in merger talks.
REO Veiling recorded a €219 million product turnover in 2021. This Belgian cooperative has always had a broad product range with open field vegetables enjoying an important share. Tomatoes remain the most important vegetable, with leeks in second place and strawberries in third. More than 800 active growers market their produce through this organization.
Coöperatie Hoogstraten, also in Belgium, sold €302 million worth of fruit and vegetables last year. It has a rather focused product range with strawberries, tomatoes, and bell peppers as the main products. Coöperatie Hoogstraten has more than 200 affiliated active growers.
Luc Vanoirbeek is the Belgian Horticultural Cooperatives’ Federation’s general secretary. He welcomes these merger talks, saying, “We support consolidating supplies. The stronger the cooperatives become, the better for growers. Quite a bit of supply has been combined in Belgium over the years, and I’m pretty proud of that.” Did he see this coming? “Sometimes nothing happens for a long time, and then cooperatives start trying to get closer. This seems like the next step,” Luc replies.
Luc Vanoirbeek, VBT
Will these parties come out of these talks united? Luc thinks so. “These are sensible people with good intentions, whom all have lots of common sense. Also, I think the parties’ locations and ranges complement each other. There will undoubtedly be cultural differences; you can be sure of that. But if you’re aware of them, you can work on them,” he says.
“This announcement proves that the sector is in motion,” is Philippe Appeltans’ first reaction. He is another Belgian cooperative, BelOrta’s general manager. “We’re looking at this from our own strengths. We, too, are a consolidation result. Mechelse Veilingen, Coöbra, and Veiling Borgloon successfully merged. These have affiliated growers all over Belgium and some parts of the Netherlands. There’s movement in this region and elsewhere in Europe.”
“Should this lead to a better reference price, BelOrta growers will benefit too. With all the increased costs, this is needed. I hope this is our colleagues’ approach too. Not to put larger volumes on the market at a lower price because that’s a race to the bottom. They should want to contribute to better, transparent reference prices for growers, traders, and retailers. Then everyone wins.”
Philippe Appeltans, BelOrta
Would Phillipe like to be involved in these talks? “I’ve learned never to say no in advance. What the future holds, no one knows. But you can also reap the benefits of cooperation outside of a merger. For example, we work together overarchingly in several areas. As long as the model is a win-win, we’ll keep working towards this. For us, growers are central, and we’ll continue to work – as a one-stop-shop with 170 different types of fruit and vegetables – from our three locations. We want to serve our trade and retail customers as well as possible,” he says.
Loek Smets, P. Smets
P. Smets & Zn, a Dutch wholesaler, buys from Coöperatie Hoogstraten and REO. “We do a lot of trade with mostly REO, practically the entire assortment,” says Loek Smets. “We get a lot of strawberries and tomatoes from Hoogstraten during the season. There’s less of these to be had there now.” Loek had not anticipated this merger news. “But I don’t find it especially strange either. These things happen often and quickly in Belgium. I can’t yet say if it will benefit us or not. I’d have to look into that first.”
Dutch cooperative, ZON’s director, John Willems, does not have much to say about the matter either. “REO and Hoogstraten are working on getting the best return for their growers, just as we do. If they’ve announced this, they must see synergy. I hope these organizations prepare well for the merger, so the market doesn’t get negatively affected,” he concludes.
