On the 8th of October our Belgian Newbie team announced the winner of the Newbie Award 2021. The winner was the one who scored highest on the combination of two attributes. On the one hand they had to convince our Steering Group of their creativity and innovativeness. On the other hand they had to gather as many online votes as possible on our online voting competition.
Our team is glad to announce that our overall winner is Boer Steven! Boer Steven managed to convince our Steering Group easily and went home with a large number of online votes. Interestingly, he even printed QR-codes of the voting page that he printed on his packaging to attract more fans. Steven is a 4th generation arable farmer who produces mostly arable products and potatoes. Recently, Steven has been experimenting with short supply chain activities like vending machines. He reached out to nearby bakers and introduces his own licensed wheat: TUR.WE (to the Dutch name “tarwe”). This wheat is used for delicious bread that is sold in his vending machines. You can check out his farm on his Instagram page: boer_steven. Like last year, the winner receives a €500 coupon to use on marketing and training.
We would like to thank the other nominees for their enthousiasm for the competition. These included farmers Kris & Ginny from farm Heirbaut, Gunther from farm Alpaca Tumulus, farmer Jarno and farmer Niels from farm De Veldhoeve. Each one of them found their own creative way into agriculture and deserve all the encouragement for their future activities.
After the price ceremony we had a nice dinner provided by the lovely entrepreneurs from Kopje Zwam. Kopje Zwam was a Newbie Award nominee from last year who we gladly trusted with the catering.
Left to right: farmer Kris, farmer Niels, farmer Ginny, Mertijn (KU Leuven), farmer Steven, Tessa (KU Leuven), Erik (KU Leuven) and farmer Gunther.
