Limburg farmers share experiences on the importance of fast internet

With increasing digitalization, the Internet is becoming increasingly important for the modern agricultural and horticultural business. However, not all agricultural companies in Limburg have access to fast internet. This costs entrepreneurs time, money and the necessary frustration. Marlies Grooten from Heerlen and Erwin Theeuwen from Wellerlooi share their experiences.

The farm of the Grooten family, on the edge of the Brunssummerheide, has a broad scope. In addition to arable farming, Christmas trees are grown and Limousin beef cattle and free-range pigs are kept. In addition, the farm store and the accompanying terrace are important pillars of the business.

'We have quite a lot of traffic, especially on nice days,' says Marlies Grooten. That logically also brings with it the necessary transactions. Initially customers could only pay cash. This investment once again made clear what the entrepreneur had known for a long time: the internet provision in the company was inadequate. If I wanted to do something on the computer, it was extremely slow. Up- and downloads took forever and when filling in the combined declaration at RVO.nl I was regularly thrown out. It was a crime.

That also applied to the mobile pin system, which also works via the Internet. Because of the lousy connection the system regularly didn't work. I then had to walk across the terrace with the customers behind me to 'catch' the internet signal.

This is why the Grooten family decided to look at the possibilities for an alternative internet service. Because the necessary infrastructure for fast internet was lacking, the choice was made to pick up the internet signal from another company 1,200 meters away. This is transmitted via a jet link. All this required an investment of 1,700 euros. The internet now works much better than before. Payments by PIN and arranging things via the Internet are no longer a problem. That is worth a lot," says Grooten.

But not everything is running smoothly yet. The landline telephone, which also works via the internet, has problems. We had to buy it for 650 euros. The monthly costs are 125 euros. But during a telephone conversation the connection regularly breaks down. That's inconvenient and frustrating.

Probably this is because the capacity of the radio link is too limited. We therefore hope that a structural solution will be found soon and we as a company will have access to fiberglass. Without good internet it is difficult to organize your business efficiently. Fast Internet is a must for running a modern agricultural business.

Disadvantageous for business

Horticulturist Erwin Theeuwen from Wellerlooi recognizes the problems Grooten outlines. For years, the cocktail-rost tomato grower experienced problems due to the poor Internet connection at his farm. We are located near the German border, at quite a distance from the village. As a result, we were initially 'condemned' to internet via the telephone line,' he says. 'That was extremely slow.'

It took minutes to log into the auction system and working with it was also very difficult. 'The same problems manifested themselves with telebanking. Logging into our CHP's from a distance was also difficult. In short: all this cost an enormous amount of time, frustration and money. When I let my employees arrange things via the Internet, they spent much longer doing so than was actually necessary. In that sense, slow internet is definitely detrimental to your business operations.

Theeuwen therefore decided to investigate the possibilities for alternative internet connections in 2017. He did so together with five fellow horticulturists in the area. 'At the time there was already talk of laying fibre optics in this area, but it was all still uncertain. We couldn't and didn't want to wait for it.

In the end the horticulturalists therefore invested in internet via a jet link. The signal was picked up at an internet provider's premises along the river Maas and beamed from there to a transmitter mast at a colleague's premises. This then sent it to the individual companies. This required an investment of 2,500 euros per company, plus a monthly fee of 130 euros. It was certainly not cheap, but it worked. A world opened up to me: we could suddenly arrange things online quickly and efficiently.'

Fiberglass laid

But the jet link has been outdated since last year, when the long-awaited fibre optic cable was laid in the outlying area of Wellerlooi. It's a lot cheaper than the beam connection and the internet is faster. Finally, Theeuwen emphasizes that more attention needs to be paid to the importance of good internet for agricultural businesses. Fast internet should be considered a utility. Just as you get gas and electricity delivered to your door, it should also be the same with fast internet.'

Source: new-harvest