Dümmen Orange hosts Innovation Week at its Spanish branch in Puerto Lumbreras

Dutch plant breeder and propagator Dümmen Orange held its Innovation Week at the company’s Spanish branch in Puerto Lumbreras (halfway Murcia and Almeria) between 13-17 March 2023.

The event brought together more than 35 leading propagators, growers and industry professionals from Australia, China, Japan, Vietnam, India and Malaysia to discuss the latest trends, innovations, crop culture, production protocols and growing systems.

Nick Bennett, Dümmen Orange’s Managing Director of Asia-Pacific, says, “At our Spanish branch, we showcased a wide and innovative current and future assortment that we have to offer to our customers in the Asia-Pacific region. To support them, we brought in our breeders, crop specialists and other experts from across the world and shared our technical expertise and product knowledge.”

Dümmen Orange has identified the Asia-Pacific region as a strategic priority and is growing its presence and organisation there. Nick Bennett: “We’re partnering with the best propagators and growers in the region, and bringing them together with our global experts in Spain proved to be an excellent platform for collaboration and for helping each other to speed up innovations and introductions.’

Traiane Pateras, Director of Australia-based Regal Blooms, says, “It was an informative and well-organised event, everyone was wonderful, and we did get a lot out of it. I’m very excited to go back and get things done.”

When asked about her highlights, she said, “I think just the knowledge everybody had, you could approach anyone with a question and everyone would have an answer.”

Santosh Shitole and Tukaram Survase, co-owners of India-based Krupa Balaji, expressed themselves along the same lines. “This event has been very informative for us,” says Santosh Shitole. “We had some doubts about climate conditions and greenhouse infrastructures, but now we came to know how people in Australia are working, how people in China, Japan and Malaysia are working.”

Tukaram Survase adds: “Dümmen Orange offers a wide variety of cut flowers, annuals, perennials, pot plants, tropicals and geophytes under one roof. It has really helped us to make our vision clear, in which direction we have to go, what are the crops we can do. The Dümmen Orange people here shared their knowledge of all aspects of a crop. They did not keep anything secret from us. And the Asia-Pacific team here was like a Wikipedia for us.”

In addition to its comprehensive portfolio of genetics, Dümmen Orange presented value-adding propositions and tools, such as point-of-sale concepts, labels and marketing materials.