Fritz Meier from Gebrüder Meier Gemüsekulturen AG in Dällikon, Switzerland, runs a a horticultural company together with his brother and sister. It’s about 100 hectares of open fields and 10 hectares of greenhouses. They grow cucumber, tomato and eggplant in the warm greenhouse, and in the cold greenhouse there is corn lettuce, radish and for the past year, hydroponic lettuce on mobile systems. They have been working with Codema for the irrigation technology for nine years. When they decided to install a mobile gutter system, they asked Codema for help again. The returns of their new mobile gutter system exceeded their expectations.
Pleasant work attitude
Fritz Meier explains briefly how the mobile gutters system works: ‘First we pot the plants on tables, after which they are transported all the way to the back of the greenhouse. There, we transplant them to the gutters, which then automatically slide through the greenhouse so we can harvest at the front again. Because all gutters and tables move through the greenhouse automatically, our people no longer actually have to lift anything other than plants and lettuce. So, we can operate it with very little manual work.’
Favorable for the environment
Advantages of the gutter system include a very easy work posture for employees, strong performance and environmental benefits. Fritz Meier tells: ‘We use about half of our water and much less pesticides and fertilizers. And nothing goes in the environment that doesn’t belong there. That is very important to us as a company.’
Codema is a company we like to coorporate with
The Gebrüder Meier has been working with Codema for quite a few years. Fritz Meier explains: ‘When we decided to install a gutter system, we asked Codema for help. We looked at the possibilities together with them so they could build a system for us on this basis.
Together with Codema we visited different companies in the Netherlands and Belgium and we have seen what Codema is capable to design, such as sophisticated transport systems for flowers. As a company, we are always happy with customers who are satisfied and who continue to work with us, and that’s how we want to deal with suppliers: we also consider a supplier who does a good job for a next project.’
