The growing ginger market in Belgium and Europe and the large intra-European ginger trade represent a great opportunity for locally grown ginger. From across the agri-food chain, great interest is being shown in the trials that the PCG has laid out in recent years around the cultivation of ginger. Many growers, as well as other players in the chain, are looking for diversification and new market opportunities to strengthen the profitability and competitiveness of their businesses. Consumers are increasingly opting for healthy and high-quality food products with a low environmental footprint. In addition, local cultivation also makes it possible to market a new product, young or early ginger, which is harvested before a thick skin has formed. This young ginger is juicier, more aromatic and less fibrous, making it easier to handle by consumers and/or processors. However, to get cultivation off the ground in Flanders, crucial knowledge is still lacking. The available knowledge is developed in the countries of origin, in tropical and subtropical regions, where growing conditions and market are very different from Flanders. Because young ginger is a new product worldwide, there is virtually no knowledge available about it. The main challenges are:

1. availability of disease-free planting material;
2. input-poor or year-round cultivation in Flemish conditions;
3. quality, consumer appreciation and storage of young ginger;
4. price and profitability

The overall objective of this project is to build a local value chain around Flemish ginger. By closely involving all chain players in the process from planting material to finished product from the start, we aim to create a revenue model for all parties involved. To achieve the above, the following concrete objectives are formulated: 

• Validate a protocol for the production of qualitative and affordable plant material
• Determine suitable cultivation techniques that increase profitability
  • Selecting varieties suitable for cultivation in the temperate, Flemish climate
  • Determine suitable cultivation techniques for cultivation with minimum inputs
  • Determine the number of cultivation cycles feasible in a heated greenhouse in substrate culivation
• Mapping the quality of the new product, the Flemish young ginger
  • Characterisation of the young ginger compared to known foreign references
  • Optimising storage and determining shelf-life
• Determining the economic feasibility of ginger cultivation in Flanders
• Disseminating the knowledge gained to the entire Flemish agriculture and horticulture sector