Westlandpeppers has a passion for growing beautiful, natural and healthy products. We do this by growing and doing business in an innovative, sustainable and market-oriented way. We are constantly developing new and improved products. Every year we grow new varieties and breeds so that we can offer a wide range with the best quality
We are also committed to reducing food waste. For example, we deliver to the food bank every week and turn the ‘less’ beautiful products into sauces. We also dry products in a special dry cell at our location in ‘s-Gravenzande. By using this class 2 chillies we try to throw away as few chillies as possible. With this, we want to prevent food waste.
Sustainability
Westlandpeppers wants to work as sustainably as possible in the areas of cultivation, biological control, packaging, energy, water and waste. So that we can provide people with fresh peppers and bell peppers now and in the future with minimal impact on people and the environment.
Biological control
We use biological crop protection and use it preventively from the very beginning of cultivation. In this way, we control diseases and pests organically; only when a disease or pest gets out of hand and can no longer be controlled with biological crop protection is chemical control used. Our highly experienced greenhouse staff are often able to detect diseases and pests from the very beginning and use biological crop protection to control them. Of course, we prefer not to use chemical crop protection and only do so when necessary and always to a limited extent, due to our varying customer base.
Packing
For the packaging of the products, we try to use as much cardboard as possible and to minimize the plastic. Although the use of plastic when packaging the peppers is not useless or unnecessary. It ensures that the products have a longer shelf life. There are various options for cardboard trays and packaging, but in the end, the choice of packaging is up to the customer.
Energy
We strive to use as little fossil energy as possible in the long term. For example, we have invested a lot in solar panels in recent years. A total of 1945 solar panels have been installed at our location in De Lier & ‘s-Gravenzande. These have generated 480,000 KWh of sustainable energy in 2022, equivalent to the consumption of 193 households per year and about 61% of our annual consumption.
We are also in the process of heating the greenhouses sustainably with geothermal energy in the future. We are a member of Aardwarmte Maasdijk, which is a collaboration of more than 80 greenhouse horticulture companies whose aim is sustainable heat for the greenhouses. The project has been running for a number of years and at the beginning of 2022 they started building the geothermal heat network.
Certificates
Westlandpeppers is in possession of various certificates that show that we work in a (food) safe, hygienic and sustainable way. The certificates are valid for our packaging hall and greenhouses. We also want to create a pleasant working environment for our employees.
We are proud to hold the following certificates: PlanetProof, Global GAP, GRASP, IFS Food, IFS Broker & AH Beter voor.
Click on the image for the corresponding certificate.