The lessons learnt from our 1st white bean pilot

The first pilot we conducted to grow white beans in the Netherlands took place in 2022 on the Dutch German boarder in Herwen with an arable farmer. The goal of the first harvest was to test 4 varieties of white beans to see which would grow best in the Netherlands and secure the highest yield. There was enough evidence from this 1st harvest that we should continue the pilot

  • The 2023 pilot has scaled up from 1 hectare and 1 farm to 3 farms and 6.5 hectares. We have eliminated one of the white beans due to it functioning differently during the testing phase of our scale up facility

  • The 2023 pilot will also see the adoption of regenerative practices which is the most holistic model of farming available to us. The project is being overseen by the Louis Bolt Institute 

  • The 3 farms are located in Noord-Holland, Brabant and Gelderland

  • The goals of this years 2nd pilot is to ascertain which varieties grows best, if it’s possible to grow white beans in different parts of the Netherlands and the impact of regenerative practices

Next year

  • Provided this years harvest is a success we intend on growing all of our white beans in the Netherlands next year

  • We have lined up a large network of farmers willing to grow white beans in 2024 including our first dairy farmers

Brad Vanstone