© Copyright 2007 Rietveld Farms, Inc.
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O V E R V I E W
Rietveld Farms´ main production focus is centered mainly in onion sets and tomatoes. Onion sets have been a mainstay with the Rietveld´s, having been first produced by their ancestors in the Netherlands. This has led to other production in the onion arena, such as large onions, boiler onions and pearl onions. Onion sets remain the primary area of focus, and are marketed and sold in all 50 states, as well as overseas. These sets are marketed mainly on the retail level; however, specific varieties are produced for commercial growers under contractual arrangements.
Processing tomatoes have been a long-time part of Rietveld Farms´ production history as well. Tomatoes have been produced over the last fifty years for companies such as Campbell´s, Libby´s, Heinz and Red Gold. There has also been an increasing demand for the quality Italian-style tomatoes on the retail level as well. Rietveld helps to supply the local Chicago market in large volume, with these Roma-type tomatoes.
Rietveld Farms has held many other contracts and associations with other Midwestern canneries and processors. Included are such companies as Aunt Nelli Foods, Oconomowoc Cannery, Gerber Foods, The Larsen Company, Green Giant, Del Monte, Williams & Sonoma and Con-Agra (Orville Redenbacher). Various specialty crops for these various businesses include vegetables such as red beets, carrots, pearl onions, lima beans, bell peppers, sweet corn and popcorn.
In 1997, Rietveld Farms established a partnership with produce marketing giant A. Duda & Sons from Oviedo, Florida. This five-year relationship established Rietveld Farms immediately as the third largest shipper of fresh, summer time sweet corn in the Midwest and the largest ever in the State of Indiana. During that time, Rietveld Farms grew, hydro-cooled and shipped over 6,000,000 pounds of hydro-cooled sweet corn during a 6-week period that lasted until Labor Day every year. However, poor market conditions persisted and necessitated the withdrawal from that marketing arrangement.
Rietveld Farms, Inc. has a history of ingenuity and innovation. In 1995, Rietveld Farms, in cooperation with the University of Georgia´s horticulture department, initiated trials with VIDALIA Sweet Onion Sets in the famed sweet onion-growing region of southeast Georgia. This eventually led to the introduction of an automated planter that eliminated the need for the arduous, hand labor that had been a traditional method of planting for that famous over-wintering crop. In the process, Rietveld Farms, along with the specialty manufacturers of the world famous TOP-AIR Onion Harvesters in Parma, Idaho, were able to successfully implement an automated planting and harvesting system that completely eliminated the need for costly hand-planting and hand-harvesting. Successive endeavors in the sweet onion growing regions in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas also proved positive. Currently, work is being done in the same fashion in Southern California’s Imperial Valley and down into Mexico. In addition, new onion varieties are continually being developed with partnerships in the high tech onion seed industry.
In 1996, Rietveld Farms would develop a relationship with a manufacturing company from the Netherlands that would soon help to revolutionize onion shed processing in the United States. ERC Machinery, from Emmeloord in the Netherlands, employed David as their U.S. Consultant to help them gain a small foothold in the American onion machinery market. David has become ERC´s primary contact for all of their U.S. operations. Currently, ERC has installations in 14 states and has become a household word in onion growing regions all across America.
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