By Jos Hilkens, AdVisie "the mushroom growing consultants", Herkenbosch, hilkens@mushroomconsulting.nl THE NETHERLANDS


A long history and a wide range


Oakfield Champignons is located in Stamproy, a village in the south of the Netherlands close to the Belgian border. It produces a wide range of mushrooms. The buildings, that mainly date back to the 1980s, still do excellent service. The third generation of the Pleunis family has once again become co-owners of the mushroom empire they originally founded in the 1980s.


65 years of history


It was Neel Pleunis, the grandfather of Arthur and Erik, who started growing mushrooms in wooden trays at the site in Lochtstraat in Stramproy in 1955. He had three growing rooms and one room for pasteurisation. The Pleunis family also used to farm cattle, before growing apples, pears, straw- berries and asparagus. In the years between 1960 to 1969, mushroom growing flourished, so the family directed all their efforts to this activity and stopped growing fruit and vegetables. 1966 saw


construction start on a building opposite the exi- sting mushroom farm, and this site is still home to today's production facility. Neel Pleunis had a large family of 16 children and transferred the company to five of his sons in 1972. Ton Pleunis became director and was responsible for book- keeping and administration, brother Thei mana- ged the mushroom growing, Piet was tasked with harvesting and marketing, while Cor and Tjeu were in charge of filling, emptying and maintai- ning the growing rooms and tunnels. The com-


Aerial photo of the farm. 22 MUSHROOM BUSINESS


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