I lost sight of it for 2 minutes in Heathrow airport and off it went ! Fortunately most of the data is stored in Dropbox - but not all of it.
So back to the Netherlands.
The Netherlands farming industry is fascinating, there is 70 million Ha of farming land and 70 ,Million people live there, so there is a huge urban population which provides challenges as well as opportunities. Farm sizes are small but intensive, with the average farm size being 27ha (land worth 40 000/ha to buy, 1200 euro/ha to lease). The Dutch are also the second biggest exporters in the world after the US, a large portion of this being value added agricultural products and flowers. The Dutch have a generation that is totally removed from farming, no one knows where their food comes from so there is an emphasis on trying to educate with open days and farmers mingling in cities as part of a public campaign to promote farmers and the sustainable way they manage the land.
Dutch farmers are heavily regulated, both by the government through the CAP (central agricultural policy which applies to all farmers in the European Union) as well as by their urban society which have some very unrealistic expectations revolving around animal welfare. For example supermarkets have made a statement that they are committed to only buying 'sustainable' meat by 2020, and They, along with consumer will decide what is sustainable, and what is not. Farmers are in a risky position!
The government regulates farmers through the CAP and the individual farm payment scheme. Dutch farmers are heavily subsidised with some farmers recieving up to 900 euro per hectare! Initially we, as unsubsidised Australian and NZ farmers, thought this was an excessive amount, and we felt there was no way we could trade on a global scale in a fair way when farmers receiving this amount of money could afford to sell cheap commodities. However, as the week went on we realised the farmers really did need this payment as the constraints that are put on their production through zoning, quotas, and fertiliser restrictions, compulsory biodiversity (the new CAP will insist on a minimum of 3 different crops grown on each farm ant any one time) were costing them a lot.
Whilst we were in the Netherlands the new CAP had been passed to come into effect in 2015 .which had been modified to be more world trade friendly, with subsidies moving away from commodity based payments to a broader per ha subsidy of around 450 euro, which will halve the incomes of some highly subsidised farmers. This new payment will be attached to greening procedures, and farmers will be expected to return some of their more fragile land to nature conservation and biodiversity. The new CAP will also remove quotas from milk production giving dairy farmers an opportunity to expand.
The biggest thing I took away from the Netherlands was marketing.
From the farmer level, promoting themselves to the consumer and the resellers and getting great premiums.
For example, Friesland Campigna (the biggest dairy coop in The Netherlands, same size as Fonterra) had a advertising campaign where they took dairy farmers and some of their cows and did an exhibition in some of the cities and it was incredibly successful. They also have pictures of their farmers on their packaging.
Some farmers are marketing their produce specifically to the consumer who is worried about animal welfare, such as the Lindenhoff company, which is still family owned and run. They grow out a French breed of cattle in a semi housed environment which has an emphasis on comfort and aesthetics, such as pretty trees growing in the pens! And it works, they butcher their own meat (will received twice the money as 'conventional' beef), and have viewing lounges where chefs can come and watch their meat being processed.
A visit to Flora Holland
Flora Holland is one a few places that are linked around Holland to Auction off flowers and potted plants to retailers.
They use a clock system to auction off the material delivered by various growers in the Netherlands and around the world. Starting off at the highest bid/price and then continue sales as the clock goes down. Buyers then bid and have to balance price with the possibility they don't get the quantity and quality they require, - is that what is meant by the term Dutch Auction ?
There are some 3700 units sold by 8 am each day !
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| Auction Clocks in action |
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| The warehouse floor - note automation. |
After a coffee break we headed off to Dinteloord, to see an arable farmer named Adrie Bossers who is a potato, sugar beet and seed grass producer.We toured his farm after having another coffee break and apple pie with he and his wife.
With a climate similar to New Zealand, there is a lot of similarities in the agronomy and yields, so was great to chew the fat with Adrie and discuss common issues.
Interesting to note that Adrie has a few more environmental restrictions with regard to production to navigate than we are accustomed to in NZ. There is however, some hefty buffers in place that are administered out of Brussels !
Below are some notes from a meeting with Henk van Dongen,Fresh Retail on Margeting.
they don't do justice to Henk but are an outline to a great meeting !
Four principles:
Strategy and control,
Research and Analysis,
Creation,
Inspire and share.
We are more international now and travel so need to be aware of overseas trends.
Ageing people with money.
Young adults use social media.
She economy - Women of the house tend to be the spenders.
Marketing your business.
Three pillars for promotion;
Food,
Culture, Art.
Create online platform,
Facebook,
Twitter etc.
Reach information.
For every message put on media receives 4 replies from every 1000 placed.
Convenience food.
Experience Trends- make the details match.
Retailing in Holland started in 1500, in 1930 we had 29000 retailers, now we have 5600.
Rise in online virtual store.
We need to create a demand or need for a product.
Decide who you want to be- one side or the other; you can’t be everything to everyone.
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| Henk Smit Host, Henk van Dongen, David Cook. |
Next stop was a real gem too !
Koppert CressArchitecture .
Aromatique.Rob Baan.
Rob was previously a crop scientist with Syngenta.
He now spend his time finding and developing cress flavours for the restaurant market.
The Scholars were asked to test various flavours including, Licorice, Salt, Peppermint, Honey, Blue Cheese and many more….
Incredible to think that these flavours are naturally occurring in the various cress varieties.
Koppert Cress export around the world and focus on chefs rather than supermarkets.
Rob makes the suggestion we need to link health and agriculture to better promote our products.
Vegetable consumption has dropped by 20% in the last 10 years.
Ror has travelled the world to 90 countries to gain inspiration and varieties.
The greenhouses at Koppert Cress are very sophisticated employ many environmentally friendly systems. Examples being;
LED lights used to light greenhouses.
Water for cooling is drawn up from from a well and then warm water is returned.
Many people involved in promotion through social media, twitter, Facebook etc.
The company does 180 exhibitions per year throughout the world.
Use wholesalers in different areas around the world, this is beneficial to logistics.
Production as about 50000 boxes per week at €2 to €20
Kitchen set up for hosting chefs and has the ability to accommodate television crews.
Food shows have helped to encourage customers to source their products.Rob is involved in his own TV channel promoting healthy food. This came about when he was told he would have to pay on the existing channels.
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| The Perfect Lunch. The flavours from the cress are amazing ! |
Sunday 30th June we made a trip south to the Merl caves in Valkenburg which is near both the German and Belgian borders.
The caves are 40 metres underground and were used to carve out limestone from an underground seam some 2 metres thick for building work and latterly for restoration of early buildings.
We all hoped on bikes and cycled around 6 kms in the caves - low ceilings meant the helmets were invaluable in keeping the head in one piece !
There is some eighty km of tunnels in the network and even include a church which was used as a fall out shelter during WW2. Sometimes the local residents would spend days or weeks in the tunnels sheltering from the war going on above ground. There are even reports of births taking place in the church.
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| The Alter in the underground church. |
Following the tunnels, we went to Gulpen to visit Gulpener Brewery. We had a very nice tour of the brewery and bottling plant then later tried some of their “special” beers. Including White Beer, Rose Beer and Pilsner beers.
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| Author and David Cook sampling Australasian style ! |
Somewhere among all this we fitted in an afternoon and evening taking in the sights of Amsterdam.
I don't plan to go into too much detail here other than to say there were tours of Anne Franks house and some of us did a tour of the Heineken Brewery.
Being practical agricultural types, one thing that was glaringly obvious was the barley sample in the interactive area of the tour was less than pure - or is that to be a wheat beer blend perhaps !
Next stop Belgium....
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