A Biobest customer in the spotlight: Gimel, leader in organic greenhouse vegetables

GIMEL Company from Bulgaria, founded in 1995, is a European leader in the production of greenhouse cucumbers and tomatoes. The company relies on Biobest bumblebees and beneficials since many years. Veselin Peney, the company’s head Agronomist gives a thumbs-up for Biobest’s hands-on technical advice and exciting product innovations.

 
GIMEL started with the production of organic products in 1999. “REWE, our mayor buyer from Germany, came up with the idea” says Veselin Penev, head Agronomist Plant Protection. “At that time, there was not yet a big market for organic products and therefore few growers were interested. For us, the conditions were right and we saw a great opportunity in entering this market. It was far from easy in the beginning, we really had to prove ourselves. But we managed to become a big name in the organic market. From then on, every product we sell comes with an organic certificate.”

 
Gimel’s main export crops are cucumbers and tomatoes. “We also have other products like cherry tomatoes, apples, carrots and pepper. But these are for the local market” says Veselin.”80% of our production is exported to Europe; around 20% is for local markets.”

 
It didn’t take long for GIMEL to find an excellent producer of beneficials and bumblebees. “We know Biobest since the beginning of our organic production. They have a really strong name in the market and have the best combination of quality, prices and technical support. We work together closely with the Biobest advisors and this allows us to gain experience with exciting new products in a very early stage.”

 
In 2013 Biobest has already launched two major innovations with the Flying Doctors® and Nutrimite™. Biobest technical advisors and customers work together closely and trials in collaboration with customers are a preferred way of rapidly building valuable experience. GIMEL has been involved in several such trials.

 
“We immediately liked the idea of the Flying Doctors®, it’s elegant and very useful in combination with providing excellent pollination”, says Veselin. He continues: “GIMEL also wants to test Nutrimite™ because it can offer a solution to some of our problems. Thrips is an important pest for us. We use Amblyseius swirskii to control it. Our Biobest advisor indicated that Nutrimite™ can act as extra food for swirskii. So we are hopeful that applying Nutrimite™ will allow us to get even better thrips control while reducing the release rate of swirskii.”