This year TNI is celebrating a milestone anniversary: 15 years "At the hearth of growth". Since 2005, we've been committed to making top-quality vegetables available to everyone. We're the link that connects growers and retailers.
Fifteen years of TNI: "Without each other, you're nowhere"
TNI was founded 15 years ago by the members of Action Pearl Growers, who together cultivated some 85 hectares of greenhouse space. They supplied their tomatoes and sweet peppers to wholesalers, but wanted to do business directly with retailers. "More transparency in the chain, so they know where their produce is being sold and at what price – that was the aim," says Frans van der Burg, TNI's founder and commercial group director at Harvest House International. 'Your fresh food chain doesn't get shorter than this': that was TNI's first slogan. "And that's still what we're all about. We ensure that the produce goes straight from the grower to the supermarket. We now represent more than 50 growers, who together cultivate 1,031 hectares of tomatoes, sweet peppers and cucumbers."
Frans stresses that TNI's success is primarily thanks to its staff. "Each and every day I'm proud of what we've created together. It was only possible thanks to our rock-solid concept: the co-operation between our growers, Harvest House, the packing stations, and other TNI partners. Without each other, you're nowhere. It's great to see TNI's increasing professionalisation. Amongst our achievements, we've set up a professional supply chain and the marketing department has become more specialised. We gather trends and data, draw up category visions, and develop new concepts."
The co-operation with all partners in the chain has meant considerable growth for TNI. Rob Barkmeijer says, "We can genuinely be proud of what we've achieved together so far. I'm certain that TNI's international year-round market position is going to be even stronger in the years to come. Our growers and our team are extremely ambitious. Our focus is market- and brand-driven, and achieving the best returns for our growers is the primary objective. We use and analyse data to gain insight into the market, in order to fine-tune our supply to meet retailer demand both now and in the future. For example, we see that digital and online shopping are developing very quickly, and we're following that closely."
Rob also sees local-for-local becoming more important. "Greenpack recently opened a packing station in Poland, so we're now able to pack and distribute closer to an important part of our market. Producing closer to our markets is going to be more and more important. We're working with our growers to investigate the possibilities."
Celebrate with us!
An anniversary celebration calls for a wide range of snacks. It's perfect time to switch things up a bit and place the focus on snack vegetables. For years now social drinks have been growing rapidly as a time to enjoy a snack as well. We're keen to make space at the table for our vegetables, to increase vegetable consumption and grow the snack category. We'll show you how to you can turn any time into a party using our products and concepts.
We have delicious snack vegetables in our range to complete the selection of snacks at your event. Tasty snack tomatoes, snack cucumbers and snack sweet peppers are both healthy and delicious. They are available in a range of packaging. The snack vegetables are even available in small shakers, which go perfectly with the tapas shelf at the supermarket.
On the table in no time flat
If you feel like something slightly more elaborate, bruschetta is a good idea. With our vegetable packs you can have something on the table in no time flat. Each pack contains the ingredients for a delicious, quick and healthy dish. There's something for all tastes, so your party is guaranteed to get everyone's mouths watering!
With the Superb Tomato Bruschetta pack from Food Fellows, you can prepare fresh bruschetta in no time flat. The pack contains Sweet Pearl tomatoes, a basil-garlic marinade and balsamico crema. Just slice, add herb mix, and toast baguette slices. Quick, easy and delicious!
Feel more like something summery? Then you need our Grilled Vegetable Package. With sweet pepper, tomato, onion, and a delicious Sweet Onion marinade, it's fast, easy and healthy. Chop the veggies, place them in the included grill tray and mix in the marinade, then pop the tray on the barbecue or in the oven. Oven-roasted veggies never tasted so good!
"Put them on the table and they're gone in a flash"
Agro Care's growers are always looking for new products and tomato varieties. In 2007 they discovered snack tomatoes, and Ad van Kester and his colleagues have grown them ever since. "Simply because we thought they were delicious."
The snack tomatoes are delicious between meals or with a drink. "They're small tomatoes, very easy to eat. When you put them on the table they're usually gone in a flash. We started with 250 grams per shaker, then 500 grams, and now we even produce 1kg buckets." The snack tomatoes come in different colours. The red ones are sweet and juicy, the orange are also deliciously sweet, the yellow snack tomatoes are crunchy with a refreshing, sweet flavour, while the brown tomatoes are extra-sweet, juicy, and yet slightly spicy.
Agro Care has grown the tomatoes since 2007. "I once read about Dattel tomatoes in Italy, which turned out to be snack tomatoes," Ad says. "We're always looking for new product lines. Along with the breeding company, we conducted a trial with the first snack tomatoes. We went ahead with cultivation, simply because we thought they were delicious. The varieties have been developed even further since then."
Over the past 15 years in which Agro Care has been a member of TNI, a lot has changed in terms of cultivation. "The biggest difference is that we've started growing better quality produce," Ad says. "We've got varieties with improved flavour and longer shelf life. We've also started growing in North Africa, in Morocco and Tunisia. Growing snack tomatoes there is ideal; the harvest requires a lot of manual labour and the tomatoes have a good shelf life, so they're easily able to cope with the three days of transport. By the way, did you know that it's an environmentally-friendly variety? We're almost always able to give the snack tomatoes 100% organic protection against diseases and pests."
Did you know?
In TNI's 15-year history, a lot has changed in the world of fruit and veggies. Did you know that 15 years ago, the snack tomato didn't exist? Now it's the quintessential healthy snack! The same goes for the snack sweet pepper, which was first cultivated 15 years ago by our grower Wim Zuidgeest. The snack cucumber was discovered a little bit later. Its small size makes it easy to eat as it is, or you can use it for dipping.
Back to school
Not much longer and it will be time to go back to school. Sending them off with healthy snack vegetables in their lunchboxes is a great start. Eating a few snack tomatoes at break and a cucumber or sweet pepper with lunch is an easy and delicious way to get an extra serve of veggies every day. Snack vegetables are also a fun and healthy option for treating others at school. Eating veggies has never been so much fun!
Supporting the Red Cross
Thanks to our 'Snacken voor elkaar' promotion we were able to raise €15,000 for the Netherlands Red Cross. Our retail partners and the growers from Harvest House responded enthusiastically to the idea of bringing promotional tomato packaging to the market. Twenty euro cents from each package sold was donated to the Red Cross. The promotion has now ended, raising a total of €15,000. We presented this to the Red Cross in the form of a special 1.5-metre cheque. The Red Cross will be using this money in the fight against coronavirus, to assist the most vulnerable as well as health care staff.
