AN INTERVIEW WITH ARJEN SMIT AND ROB SMIT OF SB SOLI PLANT: A FARMER DISTRIBUTOR COMBO FROM NETHERLANDS

Arjen: SB Soli Plant is a relatively young company and we try to specialize in everything between granular fertilizer and chemical plant protection products. We prefer products which are sustainable, but not necessarily organic. We have a farming history that goes back until 2019 when we quit and decided to be on the other side of the farming supply chain. We started making successful "greenish" products available for farmers in the Netherlands and Europe. We try to reduce costs for a farmer, improve yield or quality or contribute to sustainable farming, but preferably all three. The Dutch market is very competitive and very critical when it comes to introducing new products. We have some crops that are very unique, like the flower bulbs, the famous tulips, but we also grow a lot of maize. For us, it's vital to work with established parties that can provide us with good products, good support and know their technology as we sell.   We basically operate in every crop, such as fruits, greenhouses horticulture, also combinable crops such as cereals. Looking at the BTU products, we see a lot of potential in for Liposam, Azotohelp. Groundfix, Rizoline, Fitobact and Ecostern. One of the things that really sets us apart is our family-owned farm until only a few years back. We try to implement sustainable products to be supportive to farmers in the Netherlands and Europe for the many years to come. To do this, we cooperate with local and international businesses that share the same values.

Arjen: Well, it has a few reasons. First, we try to make a name which you can use internationally. Smit (Family Name) and brothers are important for us and we didn't want to have a very long title, so, we choose for SB. Another major reason is there are a lot of big companies, industrial companies. But in the end it is all about farmers and the farmers always are family with family values. So we aimed the fact on that and in fact "family ID" is the highest value we have and farmers understand that.

Arjen: I did the farming for about 48 years. I was a third generation farmer and my sons should be the fourth. The reason why we changed was because I was a little bit bound in my own company. As long as you have success, you keep on going. But my sons were studying, and we tried to give them the chance to study internationally and it cost us. They had another vision to work in what they wanted. We needed to take big steps to be on the top of the market in the company. So, it was a choice. With discussion between us to go further and in my age, I was at that time 60, we chose to give the advantage to our sons to proceed with our family company. We are now in with the products and everything is based on the plant.

Rob: I did a Bachelor of Science in agricultural business management, so in the day-to-day that's part of it is economics, logistics, regulations, production ventures. I tried to basically give my father and brother all the space they need to do the product technical aspects and just faciltate all the other things that you need as a professional company to actually make it happen. And that's part, big part of that these days is the regulations because just that the product is low risk does not mean that you can automatically use it in a country. With right motives, you also need to be able to offer a full package to your clients which three of us combined can offer very well so far.

Rob: I think BTU found us. We were looking into getting started more with micro-biologicals. And were testing some products in early stage on our own premises. Dmytro reached out to us at the right time and we compared some of the products together. But we did not just compare the products, we also compared the business case. We've seen a lot of situations where products can be very promising technically, but the costs are so high that it is not practical. What really attracted us to BTUwas their own strain library, their own production processes and their supply chain.  Also, we see a lot of the producers for micro-biologicals but their orientation is slightly more towards the southern parts of Europe. Their products work really well in the warmer parts of Europe. But in Netherlands, we have a bit more harsh climate, we need micro-biologicals to not only survive but to function in our conditions. BTU just came out on top for us and contract is going very well, which is also important. 

Dmytro: We are always active, sometimes actively searching for something specific or single minded partners. Our business has a philosophy and we are looking for companies who are in sync, who want to make impact, to help farmers with challenges but do it in a professional way. That is why the first thing which attracted us to SB Soli Plant was they already had some experience with biologicals. Secondly and more importantly how responsibly they consider each opportunity from the beginning. They start with some pragmatic tests on their own land. Farmers' experience is very crucial in proper selection of most efficient solutions for them.We appreciate this approach. We don't seek for quick results, but we seek for strategic projects, strategic way through small steps but the big future and I believe it's right choice.

Rob: Thing what we really like about the BTU product range is that if you look In Europe I think the biggest part of the products is some sort of organic certification avallable. If you look at the market where we operate, you need an additional extra organic certification, otherwise the goverment does not recognize it as suitable for organic farming. The organic farmers are usually already on a very high level. If we look at making farming more sustainable, we see a trend of conventional farmers trying to Implement organic techniques. The conventional farming system that we have aims to produce a lot of output at very low costs. So, for us as a company, we tend to look at ins opporanty for new sustainable technique and the demand for a certified organic input in agriculture? If the farmer itself is a conventional farmer, heis not going to sell it as organic, but we can still make the product available for them with the sustainable technique that is usually our aim.   

Rob: Lacqua Twin is the brand of the nutrient analysis kit that we use on site to demonstrate some of the specialty fertilizer products that we camy. And it's just a great way to not only know that a nutrient is there, but also that the nutrient enters the plants. It allows for very pragmatic trialing on the soil of the farmer. So we are less reliant on trial stations for demonstration purposes. And one of the big things is that it allows to do trials on greater plots.   We have some good BiAg products, a lot of them are snappers. We don't know the mode of action is and we don't know why are they working. So, when we have the new technologies available through our new AgTech innovations, we try to integrate that to have a clear, precise recommendation, so the farmers don't have to apply something which they really don't need.

Dmytro: For me it's such a discussion and opportunity to exchange this knowledge and give at least a small boost to the industry because we are doing the right things. I appreciate our partnership with SB Soli Plant, we invite them also to our educations with our international partners because all of us have some unique experience but we work in similar manner. We are introducing biologicals, helping farmers to grow in more healthy and responsible way. So, if we have this experience discussing and exchanging it, we would have a big synergy. That is why I also appreciate Roger's platform and the Congress with so many different approaches discussed and discovered. I look forward for this coming event and to learn more and to make this world better.