Directie Westlandpeppers

Who we are

In 1930 Hendrik Boekestijn started the company that’s now known as Westlandpeppers. He started with the cultivation of grapes, peaches, leeks and cauliflowers.

Later he was succeeded by his son Pieter Boekestijn, and now his three sons Henk, Dolf and Pieter have taken over the company and they cultivate a wide range of chillies and bell peppers. In the meantime, the fourth generation work at the company as well.

From April till November the products come from our own greenhouses in the Netherlands and from November till April the products come from Spain, Morocco and Israel, where we work with the same growers for years. This allows us to offer chillies and bell peppers year-round.

Our contact persons

Henk Boekestijn Westlandpeppers

Henk Boekestijn

Owner & Staff

Lisette Boekestijn Westlandpeppers

Lisette Boekestijn

Sales & Quality
Dolf Boekestijn Westlandpeppers

Dolf Boekestijn

Owner & Sales

Bram Kloosterman Westlandpeppers

Bram Kloosterman

Webshop & Innovation

Pieter Boekestijn Westlandpeppers

Pieter Boekestijn

Owner & Marketing

Westlandpeppers

Liesbeth van Uden

Marketing & Design

Our vision

Westlandpeppers has a passion for growing beautiful, natural and healthy products. We do this by cultivating and operating in an innovative, sustainable and market-oriented way.

For example, we are constantly developing in order to offer new and improved products. Every year we grow new species and varieties, so that we can offer an extensive range with the best quality.

We are also committed to preventing food waste. For example, we supply to the food bank and make sauces from the ‘lesser’ products. We also dry products in a special drying cell at our location in ‘s-Gravenzande. By giving away and using these class 2 chillies, we try to throw away as few chillies as possible. In this way, we want to reduce the waste of food.

Westlandpeppers

CERTIFICATES

Westlandpeppers is in possession of various certificates that show that we work in a (food) safe, hygienic and sustainable way. The certificates are valid for our packaging hall and greenhouses. We also want to create a pleasant working environment for our employees.
We are proud to hold the following certificates: PlanetProof, Global GAP, GRASP, IFS Food, IFS Broker & AH Beter voor.

Verse pepers Westlandpeppers

Sustainability

Westlandpeppers wants to work as sustainably as possible in the areas of cultivation, biological control, packaging, energy, water and waste. So that we can provide people with fresh chilipeppers and bell peppers now and in the future with minimal impact on people and the environment.

Packing

For the packaging of the webshop orders, we try to use as much cardboard as possible and to minimise the use of plastic. However, the use of plastic in packaging the peppers is not always pointless or unnecessary. It ensures that the products have a longer shelf life.

Energy

We strive to use as little fossil energy as possible in the long term. For example, we have invested a lot in solar panels in recent years. A total of 1945 solar panels have been installed at our location in De Lier & ‘s-Gravenzande. These have generated 480,000 KWh of sustainable energy in 2022, equivalent to the consumption of 193 households per year and about 61% of our annual consumption.

We are also in the process of heating the greenhouses sustainably with geothermal energy in the future. We are a member of Aardwarmte Maasdijk, which is a collaboration of more than 80 greenhouse horticulture companies whose aim is sustainable heat for the greenhouses. The project has been running for a number of years and at the beginning of 2022 they started building the geothermal heat network.

Zonnepanelen Westlandpeppers
Biologische bestrijding Westlandpeppers

Biological control

We use biological crop protection and use it preventively from the very beginning of cultivation. In this way, we control diseases and pests organically; only when a disease or pest gets out of hand and can no longer be controlled with biological crop protection, chemical control is used.

Our highly experienced greenhouse staff are often able to detect diseases and pests from the very beginning and use biological crop protection to control them. Of course, we prefer not to use chemical crop protection and only do so when necessary and always do this to a limited extent. With this, we are exceeding the strict requirements of supermarkets and PlanetProof.