The new Flanders Farming Beauty Queen is the first of three generations of horticulturalists in her family to learn how to work according to the environment-friendly quality rules of the Flandria quality label. This year, she wants to continue innovating…

Yesterday, Sunday 14 January, she received the riband as Flanders Farming Beauty Queen from Yves Leterme. Today, Monday 15 January, Ilse Van Havere (27) is back hard at work. In Sint-Gillis-Waas she runs a horticultural business with 6000 m2 of crops under glass and just as large an area of open air crops. Under glass, she grows cabbage lettuce, and in the open air, the crinkly lettuce varieties lollo bionda and lollo rossa as well as blanched celery.

Thanks to her innovations, Ilse can boast that almost eighty per cent of her production now receives the Flandria quality label. This quality label imposes strict requirements concerning quality, environmentally sound cultivation and food safety. "My grandfather had a horticultural business and my father is still in the business. But I am the first generation to learn to work according to the Flandria specifications. Recording and updating all my actions meticulously, monitoring watering, working with natural crop protection methods, … I had to learn all that and I am happy about that. Belgian horticulture may not be so big, but in the new environmentally-aware quality, we are the leaders in Europe, and we are conquering new markets. An example: the residue testing department analyses my lettuces before harvesting for nitrate residues. That happens at least once a month, and even more often if I want to send a larger volume to the auction. The pre-harvest analyses are still unique in the whole of European horticulture".

In her activities as the Flanders Farming Beauty Queen, Ilse may be beautiful, but she certainly isn't dumb. "Now I have the opportunity to show everyone that our horticulture dares to innovte, and is being rewarded for that. The Flandria quality label is the best evidence of that, because that is something tangible which shows that consumers once again trust the fruit and vegetables produced here".

Ilse aims to continue pioneering. This year, she wants to start switching her production under glass to a new growing method (the so-called gutter method) to be able to offer cabbage lettuce with roots. "That will extend the freshness of the cabbage letter once the consumer gets it home'.

Ilse Van Havere Flanders Farming Beauty Queen 2007

For the attention of journalists: for more info, you can contact Annemieke De Bruyne at LAVA (the umbrella organisation of six large fruit and vegetable auctions): tel.: 015 504255 and e-mail annemieke.debruyne@lava.be