Belgian blooms: grace under pressure

Wimceco fourth generation owner, Bart van Nuffelen.

Wimceco, a cut rose nursery, maintains a positive attitude and high bloom quality while weathering the vagaries of a volatile energy market and the mounting cost of labour and other production inputs.

Wimceco is a family-based business passed down from generation to generation. Grower Petrus van Nuffelen from Borsbeek founded the company in 1918, growing vegetables in the open. His son and namesake, Petrus, added greenhouses that enabled year-round cropping. In 1970, third-generation Willy van Nuffelen took over the reins from his father, taking the business further. He switched from vegetable to cut flower production and moved the company to nearby Boechout in 1988. Here, a modern 12,500m² greenhouse emerged, designed to grow cut roses.

At the turn of the millennium, fourth-generation Bart and Danny van Nuffelen followed in their father’s footsteps. They expanded the nursery to what it is today: a 17,500m² specialist-cut rose nursery growing large-headed roses in a rainbow of eight different colours/varieties.

Inside Wimceco’s section, here they are planted with ‘Avalanche+’.

Innovative business approach

The Van Nuffelen brothers are known for their innovative business approach. In 2017, they were Belgium’s first flower grower to invest in an LED lighting system. LED top lighting is particularly attractive to cut rose producers because, during the year, cut roses require up to 20 hours of lighting per day on average, much more light hours per year than other low-light flowers.

August usually marks the start of a new lighting season with six lighting hours a day, scaling up to 20 lighting hours as of October. Then, by April, the dosage of light has already halved. As a rule of thumb, there is a four to five-hour period of darkness at night to improve product quality.

In Wimceco’s hybrid set-up, the total light level of 180 µmol/m/s1 breaks up in 90 µmol/m/s1 High Output Topled of Philips and 90 µmol/m/s1 ALF1000 Wide HPS fixtures. The aim was to increase light levels without increasing energy usage and improve flower quality by creating a more stabilised climate.

Contrary to traditional HPS (High-Pressure Sodium) lamps, LEDs generate less heat, provoking less plant stress and stabilising greenhouse temperatures. It is claimed that HPS fixtures reach nearly 150°C within 30 minutes of operation, while LED fixtures only hit 50°C to 60°C.

Bart van Nuffelen says, “When switching on the HPS lamps, the inside greenhouse temperature quickly rises by two degrees. This surplus heat must be removed by ventilating the air because it can impact bud size and overall plant growth and overheat the plant. By opening the windows, however, you also lose valued carbon dioxide. LED lighting, as such, offers improved climate control. An additional benefit is that with less radiant heat, plants need less water, which leads to lower operational costs.”

(Above) Bouzit Amar ensures smooth production, preparing ‘Red Eagle’ roses for dispatch with care.

Not fully LED yet

The LED revolution in floriculture started more than 15 years ago, and the big names in lighting have been involved right from the start, touting today’s LED lighting technology as a ‘mature, reliable technology’. Yet, real-world adaption is always more complex than the purple prose of marketing.

Granted, LEDs consume significantly less energy, but they also impact the temperature and moisture balance inside the greenhouse, increasing, for example, the risk of dreaded plant diseases. Plus, rose growers in colder climates still consider HPS a reliable and additional heat source in winter. As such, they are reluctant to completely get rid of the HPS lights.

Bart van Nuffelen understands why his Dutch counterparts hesitate, explaining that at his company, they installed an additional overhead heating system to cater for some additional heat above the canopy when needed.

Moreover, the LEDs Wimceco purchased seven years ago included red and blue lights, which were unpleasant to workers’ eyes when harvesting early in the morning. Bart says, “Therefore when intervening in the crop, LEDs also work in tandem with HPS to improve workers’ comfort. When it gets too hot, we only rely on LEDs, but during that time, there is no one in the greenhouse.”

Some Dutch rose growers made an accelerated transition to full LED without HPS, which is not automatically a recipe for success. Initially, they needed to juggle the different colours. It would be best to have red, far red, a bit of blue, and white, but good light recipes were absent then. Today, the LED lighting market has progressed significantly, with fixtures producing light from four different colours of LED chips: red, blue, green (or white), and far-red. The idea is for a grower to be able to dim each one separately to adjust both light output and colour balance,” says Van Nuffelen, who is currently weighing the pros and cons of replacing half of his HPS lamps with LEDS 2.0.

“It is claimed they achieve double the light output at the same energy usage. Will they eventually improve product quality? Yes and no. In the Netherlands, a few mistakes were made by going full LED with dropping temperatures, causing more Botrytis. That’s why today we still prefer a hybrid system.”

Van Nuffelen estimates that switching to LED lighting saves up to 10-30 per cent of his total greenhouse energy demand, depending naturally on the current gas price. He notes, “The more expensive the gas is, the quicker the payback time.”

‘Avalanche+’ is a showy, high-yielding rose.

Gas woes

While Van Nuffelen prefers to focus on his grower’s job, his life, unfortunately, is spent looking more at the revolving gas and electricity prices rather than his Belgian blooms of elegance. Since Russia brutally invaded Ukraine in February 2022, gas and energy prices have gone through the roof. “By the end of that same year, we switched off our lamps, following the rhythm of the seasons, which resulted in no roses for Valentine’s Day and the UK’s Mothering Sunday. What followed was relatively good pricing over 2022, which put us in the black. However, doing this twice would not be a good idea as there are major economic consequences, and the impact on your workflow is significant.”

Wimceco had bought a portion of gas at a fixed €40 per megawatt-hour in October 2023. He elaborates, “Then, gas prices began to soar again, arriving at €45 per megawatt-hour, prompting us to negotiate a fixed price contract for 75 per cent of our gas. Guess what happened in January 2024? Gas prices were back at €25/megawatt-hour. The bottom line is that there is no certainty with gas prices. It’s like playing a game of Russian roulette now. Thankfully, we did not buy all our gas at a fixed price. Eventually, we purchased some additional gas at €25/MWh. However, at an average gas price of €40/MWh, it is tough to keep the rose crop economically viable.”

Helping Wimceco save money and grow premium quality roses is its gas-fuelled co-generation plant. The installation provides heat, electricity and CO2 fertilisation, increasing the greenhouse’s total efficiency, profitability and plant production. Van Nuffelen says: “We purchase electricity but sell excess electricity generated from our combined heat and power (CHP) back to the grid.”

Wimceco uses the predatory beetle Dalotia coriaria (formerly Atheta coriaria) to reduce the cost control of sciarid and shore flies.

Beauty versus yields

In an extraordinary bit of serendipity, Bart was fortunate to have chosen high-yielding varieties such as the stylish, heavily petalled white ‘Avalanche+’ (5,000m2) and soft, blush-pink ‘Sweet Avalanche+’ (8,000m²) and, more recently, the two-toned ‘Jumilia’ rose of breeding company United Selections. “Avalanche+’ is sold through the Brussels-based flower auction Euroveiling as we don’t have the license to sell it in the Netherlands, and ‘Sweet Avalanche’ is sold through the Royal FloraHolland clock. Wimceco and Meijer are the sole companies granted exclusivity in the European market.”

Pondering over the rose breeders’ power and commercial reality, Bart feels that, at times, there is a conflict of interest. “A breeder wants to sell as many of his newest varieties as possible. However, in the case of a niche type rose, such as ‘Sweet Avalanche+,’ more than 3ha of production area would immediately impact pricing.

There’s a risk the introduction of a new rose becomes a number’s game,” says van Nuffelen, adding that around 20 years ago, growers changed variety pretty quickly. “They would harvest from their variety for five years and then uproot it. Today, growers easily keep the same variety inside their greenhouse for ten to 12 years. So, the licensing folks tell us, first, you switched twice and now only once every ten years. So, we need more money to get a proper return on our investment.”

On days that coincide with the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Antwerp’s Mothering Day, lines form in front of these vending machines.

Choosing the right variety

Altogether, Wimceco’s catalogue boasts a range of speciality roses such as ‘Jumilia’, ‘Miss Piggy+’, ‘Red Eagle’, ‘Clarence’, ‘Peach Avalanche+’ and ‘Ivy’, 24/7 available in the company’s flower vending machines. Lines in front of these machines are impressive on 15 August, the day that coincides with the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Antwerp’s Mothering Day, on which the tradition of giving flowers to mothers. “An absolute top-selling day for us,” says Van Nuffelen.

Each year, breeders launch many new and exciting roses. This can make ordering, planning and choosing those varieties to grow a challenging endeavour.

“The large-headed rose ‘Clarence+’ -named after former AC Milan midfielder Clarence Seedorf – features stunning apricot/ orange blooms but has very disappointing yields, particularly when compared to ‘Avalanche+’, which produces three times more stems. Pricing of ‘Clarence+’ has not tripled, so that is not so good. On the other hand, prices of ‘Avalanche+’ have lately come under pressure too as a fellow rose grower, from Flanders, has expanded the variety’s production area.”

State of Flanders’ cut rose industry

Flanders currently has ten growers who dedicate themselves to commercial rose growing, of which two account for three hectares each. The region’s third-largest rose grower is Wimceco. All growers combined – those who lit their crop or do not use supplemental lighting – Flanders’ area down to cut rose production is ten hectares.

Van Nuffelen anticipates production to decline further. The sector is experiencing significant changes in labour costs. The value of the labour costs for a greenhouse worker in Belgium is at an estimated €20 per hour, a close to 15 per cent increase over the past two years.

“The job of a rose grower is not always an easy one. Disbudding and daily harvesting of the roses; altogether, there is much hand labour involved. Christmas and New Year’s Day are the only days in the year you cannot find us in the greenhouse. There is an ageing workforce and very few new entrants to the sector. Our son has found a job in a different sector, while our two daughters study medicine and psychology and are not interested in horticulture. Aside from my brother’s children, it is more or less the same story, so I fear we are a dying breed,” Van Nuffelen says,

He is now 50, and within three years, the Van Nuffelen brothers will have to plant a new crop for the next ten years. Van Nuffelen continues, “Certainty about how the gas price will evolve in the same period would make our life easier. Considering the energy market’s volatility, it is impossible to make long-term plans even though this is what our business typically requires, considering the number of necessary future investments in lighting, gas motors, and other tech. Another problem is that we are relatively distant from the market with transportation costs significantly on the rise.”

Van Nuffelen is also worried about the cost-of-living crisis and the price elasticity of roses in the age of inflation. “We believe the price of roses should not further increase because if shoppers need to spend two or three euros per rose stem, that’s quite outrageous. How long will roses stay affordable? People – in particular, the younger ones spend their money differently, attending music festivals, holidaying or eating out. Restaurants still seem to be fully booked, but flower shops are empty. Yet, flowers bring happiness, beauty, comfort and healing. Especially with roses, you can never go wrong. So, please bear in mind that roses are also a very positive story.”

This article was first published in the December 2024 issue of FloraCulture International.