In 2014, de Haan moved to Dubai with her husband on a “temporary adventure.” The idea was to stay there for two years and then return to the Netherlands. “That seemed long enough to me. I thought life in Dubai would be all glitz and glamour.”

Initially this photo was also confirmed. De Haan was born and raised in Freeland, and lived in Dubai Marina, a posh area filled with new skyscrapers. Not a place where she felt at home. “We quickly moved to the outskirts of the city, where there was space and unspoiled desert terrain. I found that relaxing.”

“Usually Dutch”

Dubai, where more than 88% of the population are expatriates, turned out to be nicer than expected and the couple stayed. What de Haan finds attractive about the Arab emirate is how cosmopolitan it is. “I have met people from all over the world here. Each one has their own story and vision of the world.” Through her exposure to other cultures, she realized what was typically Dutch about her and how that gave her an advantage as an entrepreneur: communicating openly and honestly.

“In some cultures, saying ‘no’ is considered rude. People promise all kinds of things, but you’re never quite sure whether they’ll follow through or not.” “It’s not as clear as some of the Dutch,” says de Haan, but it’s clear. Say what is possible and what is not, so people know where they stand.

No agricultural background

De Haan also saw that agriculture in Dubai is much less professional than in the Netherlands. “What is natural to us is still relatively new here. Think about growing in greenhouses or working with biopesticides.” He gave her the opportunity to do so Dream project To be implemented. “I really wanted to do something related to sustainability and I was always interested in agriculture. But I had no agricultural background and had no idea how to make a career outside of it.”

In Dubai, she saw an opportunity to create something as a newcomer, because there simply wasn’t much out there yet. “A lot is already happening in this field in the Netherlands. I didn’t see any opportunities for myself there, but I really added something here.”

Starting your own business as a woman is not unprecedented in Dubai. “I didn’t know in advance what life would be like here as a woman.” De Haan discovered that the local culture is different from the Netherlands, but it is not black and white. “Some local women live in isolation and in traditional gender roles, but there are also many ambitious Emirati women who run successful businesses.”

Sustainable agriculture

De Haan, who holds a master’s degree in international business and a bachelor’s degree in technical business administration, gave up her job as an account executive at a training and consulting company and decided to work on her plans for a sustainable agricultural company: Mary Anne’s Fresh Produce.

Lack of experience was not the only challenge. “The soil here is not fertile and the climate is uncooperative for half the year.” During a trip to Egypt, de Haan went to see farms that produce sustainably, and the Internet also helped her in her self-study on different agricultural techniques.

Edible flowers

She conducted her own market research with chefs Upscale restaurant scene To talk about Dubai. “I talked to them about what I could grow. What do they need?” The answer was: edible flowers. These enrich the dish, but are difficult to import because of their weakness.

De Haan got to work. Not by knocking on the bank’s door – “they saw me coming, without any farming experience” – but by financing everything with their own money and starting very small. She didn’t hire people, but she literally built her company with her own hands. The first step was to order things and start trying them. “I first set up the system in our garden to see how it worked.”

Hydroponics

Things were also tried indoors. “I bought LEDs and started testing them on a square meter of space at home.” This way I was able to see the effects of different types of light on plants. Know what works and what doesn’t.

If De Haan couldn’t figure something out, she called her Dutch helpline. “My father is very helpful and is always thinking with me.” When a place was found for the company, her parents came to Dubai and together they built shelves and installed wiring.

In 2018, I was able to start vertical farming in an old house: shelves full of plants fed through hydroponics. Edible flowers and buds do not grow in the open ground, but there is a system through which water with nutrients is distributed along the plants.

The company has now grown significantly and operates with a team of sixteen people. Between 6,000 and 7,000 boxes of flowers are sent monthly, delivered to more than seventy restaurants. Vertical farming has been expanded from two rooms in the building to the entire building. There is also a double greenhouse in use and an additional greenhouse under construction.

Burning Dubai

In the greenhouse, edible flowers are grown in the ground in a completely organic way. The climate is controlled by fans and water vapor, so that it does not become too hot in the greenhouse. A challenge in a country where temperatures above forty degrees are not uncommon in the summer months. “We continue to look at how we can operate more efficiently and energy-efficiently.”

But it works. Flowers de Haan can be found in the best restaurants in Dubai and all the chefs know who she is. “There were some people who looked weird when I first delivered myself.” The woman who delivered the boxes. They don’t see that much in Dubai. “But this actually created a lot of goodwill.”

These are the things she’s proud of: her good relationship with the chefs and the fact that she was able to make something out of nothing in an industry she wasn’t familiar with. Its customer base is still growing, and orders now also come from Abu Dhabi. “I never dared to dream that things would turn out so well.”