Iceland review - 2013, Síða 44

42 ICELAND REVIEW
“the tomatoes are harvested in the morning,
picked up in the early afternoon and sometimes
become available in stores the same day.”
encourages them to maintain high quality.”
“When one considers that 90 percent of a
cucumber and tomato is water, one is bound
to conclude that the quality of the water is
an important taste factor,” theorizes Knútur
about his products’ popularity. “Foreign veg-
etable farmers are amazed when I tell them
that in Iceland we water our plants with
drinking water.”
WiNgED WorkforCE
Another factor in the quality of Icelandic
products is the lack of pesticides in green-
houses; biological pest controls replaced
chemicals about 15 years ago. “My job as a
vegetable farmer is to manage the flies; if I
see too many whiteflies, I release some more
green flies,” says Knútur, making it sound
like a video game.
Imported from The Netherlands, ‘green
flies’ (Macrolophuscaliginosus) eat harmful
insects. At Gufuhlíð, Helgi demonstrates
how whiteflies dot a leaf of a cucumber
liana. If their numbers aren’t controlled, they
form a sticky white surface on the leaves
and kill the plant.
However, at Espiflöt, the green flies
became a menace. “They ate all the white-
flies but eventually we discovered that when
they were out of bugs they started sucking
nutrition from young flowers, resulting in
a ten percent slash in produce,” says Axel.
Then the green flies had to be eliminated
and replaced with another type of warrior,
ants that eat the whiteflies but leave the
flowers alone.
This is not the only job for which insects
are suited. While the cucumber plant pol-
linates itself, the tomato plant needs help.
“These are my working girls,” Knútur says
of bees he ‘employs’ for that purpose. They
live in a cotton-filled box, making honey in
the process. A byproduct of tomato farm-
ing, it sweetens life at the farm but doesn’t
come in large enough quantities for honey
production.
TaPPiNg iNTo TouriSM
Tourism, on the other hand, has proven a
valuable extra income for Friðheimar. “It
started out with horse shows,” explains
Knútur. Friðheimar has a herd of around
40 horses. “I thought foreign tourists might
be interested in learning more about the
Icelandic horse,” he says. His and Helena’s
children help demonstrate the different
gaits at shows with narrations running in a
range of languages. Afterwards, the tourists
get to meet the horses. “They always love
petting them,” Knútur smiles.
The greenhouses caught their attention
too and Friðheimar eventually became
a regular stop on Reykjavík Excursion’s
Golden Circle Tour. “I give a little speech
about greenhouse farming, show the guests
around and then they get a cup of tomato
soup,” says Knútur. He and Helena have
installed a kitchen in the main greenhouse.
“We welcomed 25,000 guests last year and
expect 40,000 this year.” Buses drop by
every day. “We work on Christmas Eve
and New Year’s Day,” adds Helena. “It’s a
conscious decision. Dairy farmers have to
work every day too.”
ENErgy JaM
Before opting for grow lights for year-
round production about a decade ago,
greenhouse farming at Friðheimar was lim-
ited to the summer months when natural
lighting is plentiful. They used to shut the
production down in winter, which resulted
in an unstable income. “We decided that
we either had to establish grow lights or
give up greenhouse farming,” says Helena.
“The previous arrangement just didn’t make
sense.” All large-scale greenhouse farmers in
Iceland have done the same, resulting in an
approximate 100 percent increase in pro-
duction and consumption of tomatoes and
cucumbers in the past ten years.
The excessive use of electricity results in
a high energy bill. Friðheimar, for example,
consumes 5.3 million kilowatt hours annu-
ally, similar to a town of 3,000 inhabit-
ants, which costs ISK 25-30 million (USD
200,000-235,000) per year. “We are dissatis-
fied with not getting more support from the
government,” comments Bjarni. Large-scale
industries, such as aluminum smelters, have
obtained a more beneficial contract with
power plants, paying approximately one third
less for electricity than greenhouse farmers
do. “We are not comparing our energy need
to that of smelters. We acknowledge that as
they buy electricity year-round they should
get better terms,” stresses Bjarni. “However,
it has not been taken into consideration that
greenhouse farmers are high energy users
too.”
In November 2009, farmers protested in
front of the Icelandic parliament because of
cutbacks in subsidies to energy for green-
houses and a 30-percent increase in distri-
bution cost of electricity. “Such an increase
is very difficult for horticulture farming
because it’s the industry’s largest cost item,”
explains Bjarni. As a result, 2009 saw a slight
decline in production of greenhouse veg-
etables after an almost constant growth since
the beginning of the millennium. However,
in the past years production has increased
again, exceeding 4,000 tons in 2011.
PiPE DrEaMS or rEal PoTENTial?
“My hope is that the industry can continue
to grow and that we will gradually become
self-sufficient in vegetable production,” says
fARmING