The history of Ploeger machines

This unique company started its history in the late fifties. Its founder, Mr Gerrit Ploeger, was a contract harvester for the vegetable processing industry. French bean harvesting was one of the main activities of the company. The harvesting of these beans is labour-intensive requiring many seasonal labourers during the harvest to pick the beans by hand. The requirement for a combine that harvests these beans mechanically arose from the logistical problems experienced and the social security costs that kept on rising. The G. Ploeger BV company developed and built in 1959 the very first mechanical bean harvester (for their own use) in the yard behind the owners house in the town of Oudenbosch in the Netherlands. Given the enormous market demand for these bean harvesters, it did not take long before bean harvesters for use by the company itself as well as for use by competitor companies were built during the winter months. These harvesters were soon thereafter also sold abroad to the industry and to harvest contracting firms.

The first self-propelled bean harvester was built in 1968. Ploeger BV therefore developed more and more into a machinery factory in addition to its traditional cultivating activities. The machinery fabrication business flourished on account of the vast demand. New techniques were applied in the combines thus giving them a higher capacity and an increased reliability. The industrial market demand for bean harvesters diminished in the late 70s and combines were developed for the harvesting of other vegetables used in the industrial food processing industry.

The very first green pea harvester was developed and built in 1982 at the location Standdaarbuitensedijk in Oud Gastel in the Netherlands: Model 3600, a gigantic combine in those days, was based on established techniques.

The market, however, required something new and better and Ploeger BV developed in 1983 the lightest self-propelled pea harvester with a capacity and quality comparable to the best available combine of those days. The introduction of the EPD490 established the beginning of a trend:

1984: the development, construction and sales of the Ploeger self-propelled spinach harvester MK20.

1985: the development, construction and sales of the Ploeger self-propelled bean harvester BP700.

1990: the development and construction of a higher capacity pea harvester, the EPD520.

1992: Ploeger Machines BV becomes an independent company. The cooperation with the American company Byron Equipment Corp. also started that year: Ploeger Machines BV starts to import the Byron sugar and corn seed harvester systems for the eastern and western-European markets.

1995: the development, construction and sales of a new model bean harvester, the BP2000.

1996: the development, construction and sales of a totally new concept for vegetable leaf harvesting. The Ploeger MKC 4tr is a harvester with a system that loads and discharges containers. The system is constructed onto an undercarriage with 4 rubber caterpillar tracks so that harvesting can take place under any kind of weather condition while there is no direct human contact with the produce harvested. Such a container system can be installed onto various types of undercarriages.

1998: the development, construction and sales of a new model pea harvester, the EPD530.

2002: the development, construction and sales of a new model bean harvester, the BP2100. Ploeger also takes over the operations of the UK-based company FMC Fakenham.

2003: the development of a new self-propelled 4 Row potato harvester with a storage bunker, the AR-4B.