Koppert foundation: employees that are committed to a better world

Published 1/12/2026
The Koppert Foundation is built on three pillars. One of these is encouraging employees to participate in social projects - helping them grow in their sense of social responsibility. The foundation supports these projects with time or financial resources. In this article, we highlight a project involving our colleagues Remco Huvermann and Tom Groot. They share what drives them and the difference their work is making.

Project: Varroa-resistant honeybees
Remco Huvermann (Consultant, Horti Division) and Tom Groot (Global Integrated Pest Management Expert) are both involved as volunteers in the Varroa-Resistant Honeybee Project run by the Arista Bee Research Foundation. 

Remco explains what the project is about: “In addition to bumblebees, honeybees are crucial for crop pollination. Bumblebees and honeybees are often used side by side, for example in cherries, apples, and strawberries. Since the 1980s, bee colonies in our country have been plagued by the invasive Varroa mite. This mite reproduces in the brood of the bees and transmits viruses in the process. The Varroa mites and the viruses weaken the colonies, and eventually, the colonies die.

To prevent this, beekeepers must regularly treat the colonies, but these treatments are not harmless to the bees either. Moreover, just like in humans (e.g., the coronavirus), increasingly aggressive bee viruses are emerging, which means that even a low level of Varroa mite infestation can now lead to the rapid death of a colony.”

A solution from nature
Over the years, many efforts have been made to solve the Varroa problem. Nature itself seems to offer a promising solution. “That doesn’t surprise us at Koppert,” says Tom. “Some bee colonies are able to detect Varroa mites in the brood cells and remove the entire cell, mites and all. This breaks the cycle and solves the mite problem. In this way, the colony becomes resistant to the Varroa mite.”

However, this trait is difficult to spread throughout the honeybee population. A queen bee mates with 8 to 15 drones (male bees),” Remco explains. “And those drones come from different colonies. So nature needs a little help. That’s where our project comes in, involving three coordinators and ten to twelve volunteers.”

The volunteers screen existing bee populations for the presence of this beneficial trait and selectively breed it into other queens. “This year, we’re going to produce 30 queens (colonies), which will be instrumentally inseminated with a single drone. This drone comes from a colony with a high level of Varroa resistance.”

The cycle
How does this process actually work? Remco explains: “First, we ensure that the fertilized queen bees start laying eggs. Once the first worker bees are born, we infect the colonies with 150 Varroa mites. After ten days, we inspect the brood to see which colonies have removed more than 75% of the mites. Usually, this is successful in one or two out of ten colonies. The queens from these successful colonies are then used in the fall to breed and inseminate another twenty to thirty new queens.

We repeat this process for two to three seasons, so that we eventually have many queens that are fully resistant to the Varroa mite. These resistant queens are then further bred and distributed. By repeating this cycle, we aim to maintain sufficient genetic diversity and help restore the health of the honeybee population. We can be proud of the tremendous work being done here.”

Nature does the rest
The ultimate goal of the project is to develop larger honeybee colonies that are resistant to the Varroa mite. With healthy bee populations, pollination improves, and nature can take over leading to a more robust ecosystem and greater biodiversity.

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