Currently, a 32 ha Agricultural Park in Lanzhou, in the Gansu province in China, is being built and one of the greenhouses, an 18 ha greenhouse for the cultivation of roses, will soon be finished. With the gutter system currently being installed, they are at the final phase of this project. The gutters are supplied and installed by Metazet FormFlex, and particularly now, in times of COVID-19, they are very pleased with their local facility, executing the project independently and therefore finishing the project on time.
215,000 m of steel gutters
The 32 ha park is a demonstration park that will include an 18 ha rose greenhouse, which is one of the 3 greenhouses currently being built. The owners of the park decided to cultivate according to Dutch standards and therefore Dutch suppliers. Metazet FormFlex in collaboration with Codema is one of the Dutch companies taking part in this project and supplied almost 215,000 meters of steel gutters on supports, one of their largest projects for cut flowers in China, which are currently being installed.
The roses will be grown on 20 cm steel gutters in double rows. To ensure optimal drainage of the 120m long gutter rows the gutters are supplied with extra deep drain channels.
Production in the Netherlands
All related materials were designed and produced in the Netherlands (Wateringen), where their headquarters is based, and then transported to China. Fortunately, all materials arrived on time. "The pandemic created logistical challenges. As there was less product being shipped from China to Europe, less transport to China was available. But we were able to finish the production a bit earlier, so that they would arrive on time in China."
Local team in China
When the materials arrived in China, the gutters were roll formed by their Chinese team of operators. For over 10 years, Metazet FormFlex has had their own mobile roll forming machines and facility in China, managed by Eelco Wolthuizen, enabling them to carry out projects independently. And now, during the pandemic, this is a major advantage, Nieuwenhuyzen explains. "In countries where we do not have our own local team, we usually send our Dutch technicians, but during the pandemic it would not have been possible. Now with this local team, we have become much more flexible and our schedule is much more secure in this difficult period. This flexibility has already proved its effectiveness several times. Our operators are well trained and customers can enjoy the Dutch quality and execution and if they have any questions or problems, they can discuss it in their own language", explains Stefan Nieuwenhuyzen.
One of their largest projects in roses
This project is one of their major projects for the floral industry in China. "We are increasingly seeing large horticultural projects in China, over the last years, we've done a lot of projects for vegetable cultivation, in which the country is investing strongly as they are eager to become more self-sufficient and produce higher quality products, as the middle class is growing quickly and has more to spend on fresh produce. Probably, this also counts for flowers."
Metazet FormFlexStefan Nieuwenhuyzen
Email: Stefan@formflex.nl
www.metazetformflex.nl