The greenhouse horticulture is growing in Belgium owing to its upscaling and investments from Dutch investors. Despite total greenhouse acreage has gone down, greenhouse horticulture is developing in this country. Flanders is the highest contributing region in Belgium. It has around 1,930 hectares spread primarily over Antwerp (847 hectares), East & West Flanders and over 1,514 companies.
The highest revenue generating product was tomato, accounting for 180 million Euro a year. Strawberry and bell pepper generated 117 million Euro and 37 million Euro. In terms of acreage, lettuce covers 740 hectares followed by tomato covering 522 hectares. 30 percent of the acreage was more than 20 years old and more than 40 percent of acreage was between 10 to 20 years old in 2012.
Upscaling drives the growth in Greenhouse Horticulture Market. Less than 10 percent tomato nurseries were bigger than 4 hectares in 2007. The percentage increased up to 46 percent in 2013. Netherlands is the leading country in greenhouse horticulture industry. Dutch investors are investing in large-scale projects in Belgium. In Netherlands, less equity capital is required, but in Belgium, huge equity capital is needed for investment. Kevin Pittoors, business manager at Pitoma said about his new company, “We don’t have horticulture regions like in the Netherlands. You have to find a piece of land yourself, apply for permits, take care of utilities. That has meant the preparation process took quite a while.”
Many studies have been done that analyze changing market dynamics of greenhouse horticulture industry. Recently, Big Market research has added a report titled “Global Greenhouse Horticulture Market 2015-2019.” As per the report, the global greenhouse horticulture market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.4% from 2014 to 2019. The report offers an in-depth analysis of detailed segmentation, competitive landscape, key drivers & challenges, and development trend of the industry.
Source : http://www.hortidaily.com/article/24998/Greenhouse-horticulture-on-the-rise-in-Belgium