Jan Prins

Mr. Jan Prins has been serving as Head Grower for Pure Harvest Smart Farms since April 2018. Mr. Prins’ engagement with the company began as early as December 2017 through a consulting capacity.

A seasoned master grower with international experience, Mr. Prins has engaged in various growing and crop consultancy roles across Europe, Africa, and Asia. Working as a senior grower in China in 2017, Mr. Prins was responsible for educating young Chinese students on how to cultivate plants in high-tech greenhouses. Mr. Prins has also developed and operated farms in Ethiopia and has built and managed greenhouses in The Netherlands. Mr. Prins has also performed diverse functions such as consulting in Turkey, export of Albanian tomatoes to Russia, and adviser to the government of Ethiopia. Mr. Prins has witnessed and experienced all aspects of horticulture to a great degree of depth.

In 2006, Mr. Prins became the first grower in Ethiopia specializing in the export of premium quality vegetables to the Middle East. In 2008, Sheikh Mohammed Al Amoudi acquired Mr. Prins’ company, and, working under his umbrella, Mr. Prins built a company from scratch which operated five farms in diverging climate levels in Ethiopia. This project produced as many as 100 different varieties of vegetables, strawberries, and roses. Three years later, the company rose to become the biggest vegetable exporter in Ethiopia, exporting to 11 countries and serving as a major supplier to the U.S. armed forces in Afghanistan.

After departing the company of Sheikh Mohammed in 2014, Mr. Prins built and operated two other farms in Ethiopia before moving to China in 2017. Prior to 2006, Mr. Prins worked as an employee, manager, and co-founder of various different greenhouse companies in The Netherlands where he had good exposure to growing in a high-tech environment. Mr. Prins started working at the tender age of 16 years after completing his horticultural study, however, he returned back to Erasmus university in The Netherlands at the age of 20 to further his studies on management in all its facets.