GREANR develops innovative, sustainable solutions for growers in the agricultural sector. We work closely with key partners in the industry and are committed to the growers.
We knew each other from the world of crop protection. After his early retirement Jan started collaborating as a part-time consultant and Jan-Eric started his own seed potato trading company with a lot of passion. A problem with residues in potato storage and a tip from an old friend made our paths cross again.
Jan-Eric Geersing
PRODUCT MANAGEMENT & TECHNICAL ADVICE
Jan-Eric is dedicated to the breeding of potato varieties and the sale of seed potatoes. Previously, he was involved in the development and marketing of germination inhibitors and also in product management in the crop protection field.
About GREANR
Our first product innovation will be the GREANR Cleaner. Jan-Eric: “From past research in the field of germination inhibitors for potatoes, and from my own experience with essential oils for cleaning conveyor belts in storage facilities, I have gained a lot of knowledge but no one was paying attention to this issue at the time. Now that there is a major problem with the cleaning of chlorpropham residues in the storage areas, I believe it is the perfect time for a product specifically made for this.”
About the origin
Everything started in the period from 2003 to 2006, when Jan-Eric and his colleague Wilbert Moes at Luxan were working on some empirical research on a by-product obtained from the synthesis of the essential oil carvone, which is the active ingredient of the biological sprout growth regulator called Talent. This by-product that goes by the name d-limonene, also an essential oil, turned out to be an excellent cleaner when used in conveyor belts contaminated with the germicide Gro-Stop Basis whose active ingredient is Chlorpropham. Besides the cleaning properties, this product was found to have numerous other properties as well, but unfortunately there were not enough financial resources to pursue the investigation of another active ingredient other than carvone; this is why it was only used as a cleaning product. Later the whole idea disappeared from the market altogether, only to discover that unknowingly they were on a path that could lead to a new discovery.
Oro Agri
A few years later, more and more people started sniffing the Citrus-scented trace that Oro Agri was leaving. It was at this moment that they realized that the enhanced version of the detergent was about to be born. During the bio-pesticide congress in Barcelona back in 2016, Oro Agri’s manager Carol Pullen illustrated the effectiveness of this product when used as a detergent, creating a lot of questions and request for more information even after the congress ended.
HDDS® GREANR Cleaner
Fast forwarding to 2020, when the ban on the active substance Chlorpropham, and therefore on the germination inhibitor Gro-Stop, hits the industry it is as if a bomb went off. The race to a new, extremely powerful cleaning agent that could effectively clean potato storage facilities gains momentum. We start the formulation of a cleaner which has its roots in South Africa and takes inspiration from what they are already doing in the coal mines. That is how the first branch starts growing from the stem of our company GREANR, which is also the name of our first product.