The renovation and new construction at PanAmerican Seed in Venhuizen, the Netherlands, has been completed recently. The realization of the project took 1.5 years and was not without any hurdles. “Corona, rising prices and scarcity of materials made it a difficult period, but it was a wonderful adventure with a fantastic result.” The renovation is now complete, but there are more plans in the pipeline for 2024.
Reason for renovation
“The reason for the renovation and new construction,” says Tim Bouwman, “was to become more sustainable, to improve hygiene and logistics in the company, to further diversify, and to attract new top talent.” The plans were drawn up, developed, and executed together with DLVge in 2020 and 2021.
Video of the renovation progress from March 2022 to November 2023
What happened?
In the spring of 2021, a 3,000m2 breeding container field was constructed by ErfGoed. “The floor was placed at the rear of the company with the aim of growing separately from the subsoil and utilizing the benefits of a lava floor.”
One of the biggest changes took place in April 2022, when the first pile of the nine greenhouse departments was driven by Nobutec. “These greenhouse departments consist of three departments for growing plugs, two departments for cut flowers and four departments for maintaining stock material and/or trailing our crops. All departments are equipped with air humidification, LED lighting, insect screens, PAR Perfect screen cloths, and facade cloths. In addition, 7 of the 9 departments are equipped with cultivation tables, supplied by the Bruine de Bruin company.”
Verbeekproject subsequently built a new facility and office. The facility is equipped with a seed lab, crop protection area, boiler house, water technical space, and sanitary areas. The heating and installation of the new boiler house was carried out by Ateco and the water technical room installations, including all piping, an extra basin, and air humidification in the greenhouses, were carried out by KARO. Van der Laan did the electrical work and, in addition to the LED lighting, also installed a new IIVO climate computer. Finally, the offices and meeting rooms have been completed by CFI project design.
More plans in the pipeline
A commercial container field and parking lot expansion are planned for 2024. In addition, they are also looking to become more sustainable and thus further develop and improve their breeding activities. “Innovation is in our genes at PanAmerican Seed. That is one of the pillars we strive for. For example, we are now looking at the use of a heat pump. In short, everything to become a more sustainable company and the development of our breeding. This way, we can offer our customers the best, high-quality products.”
For more information:
PanAmerican Seed
www.panamseed.com