Richard Vater, owner of fresh produce company Iberveg, is an Englishman, who many years ago decided to leave the cold and rainy days in England behind to move to the South of Spain. Ties between England haven’t been completely cut, as Iberveg has sites in both countries, giving them the opportunity to grow crops year-round.   

The Spanish horticulture trade magazine Agro Autentico visited Richard Vater in one of his greenhouses to speak about his impressive operation. As an important technological supplier of Iberveg, Ridder’s Francisco Alonso and Juan Carlos Jiménez were present to explain how the Ridder solutions enable the automation of many of the cultivation processes and help save energy.   

With the swift rising cost of energy, the topic of saving energy gets more important every day. One of the products that are highlighted in this article is Ridder’s climate screens. Iberveg uses thermal screens, used for shading and energy saving. In the south of Spain, screens are mainly used for cooling during summer. “Like traditional whitewashing, but with the advantage that they are retractable and can be exactly positioned according to the needs of each moment” explains Francisco Alonso. Where during winter these screens are used to maintain heat and reduce the use of heating after the sun has gone down. The flexibility of being able to open and close the climate screens results in energy savings of up to 50%.  

Ridder’s Juan Carlos Jiménez explained how the Ridder HortiMaX CX500 climate computer controls the screens, windows, heating, and CO2. This central computer makes it possible to automate many processes. In combination with the Synopta control software, Richard Vater is provided with a user interface on both his desktop and mobile phone showing him a lot of relevant data. Data he then uses to control everything through his mobile.  As Juan Carlos Jiménez says in the article: “To make it easy to understand, Synopta gives the orders and HortiMaX CX500 executes them”.  

To read the whole Agro Autentico article, please click here. 

Source: https://agroautentico.com/2022/02/richard-vater-iberveg-high-tech-nijar-holanda-inglaterra/