Minister-president Marc Rutte visited Cuba as a representor of the Dutch Caribbean Isle’s in June 2016. He spoke with Barbados’ head of government. This Caribbean isle has an estimated amount of 300.000 inhabitants, it has a high population density and it is one of the most prosperous isles from Central- and South-America. Barbados’ agricultural sector, however, does not preform optimal, which is mainly due to a lack in cultivation(technical)- and management skills. Barbados’ Ministry of Agriculture, Food, Fisheries and Water Resource Management (MAFFW) is currently implementing a program in order to bring the necessity of a more efficient and sustainable food production to the people’s attention.

Following Rutte’s visit and after having been invited by the Dutch government, two representatives from Barbados, Mr. Andre Devonish and Mr. Rodney Brandford, paid a visit to the Dutch horticulture sector.  Both gentlemen are involved in setting up a demonstration- and training farm of circa 10 ha. A lot of focus will be on mid-tech cultivation techniques. The visit served as an inspiration as well as a way to investigate the (im-)possibilities of collaboration.

HollandDoor has, at the request of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Economic Affairs, arranged the complete organization and realization of a 4-day tailor made study trip. The study trip took place from the 23rd to the 27th of April 2017.

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At the request of Gadot Agro from Israel, HollandDoor organized a short tailor made visitation program for two of their employees. The program offered them insight and information about the current technical situation of the Dutch horticultural sector.

Among the visited Dutch companies were FloraHolland, Lans Tomaten, GreenPack, LMC Chrysant, Holstein Gerbera and Demokwekerij. The guests were kindly welcomed everywhere and a lot of cultivation knowledge was exchanged.

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JICA (Japan International Corporation Agency / (www.jica.go.jp) contacted the services of PlaNet Finance Japan (PFJ / www.planetfinance.or.jp) to implement the research of the project named “Survey on Microfinance Sector in Albania by Assisting its Development”. Its main goal is to strengthen the Albanian agricultural sector by assisting with the Albanian microfinance and financial inclusion stakeholders.

Since JICA and PFJ have no local presence in Albania, they have partnered with the local ASC Union (Albanian Savings and Credit Union / www.ascunion.org.al). One of the components of the project is to organize workshops and international study tours to expose the various financial inclusion actors (including members of FED Invest) to international practices and models on cooperatives and financial inclusion in Europe, Africa and Asia. In Europe,  the Netherlands and France have been selected for the visits as well as to learn about agricultural financing, working of cooperatives, and also about farms.

PFJ requested HollandDoor to organize an inspiring introduction into Dutch Agribusiness. This exposure should trigger the minds of the trainees to define new strategies of optimizing the Albanian Agro cluster by means of e.g. new financial incentives. Training of the selected officials should realize exposure to modern global agribusiness concepts, supply chains and modern practices in value addition and supply chain management.

On Thursday 17 March 2016, the program started with a seminar by Niek Botden about The Netherlands in general and more specific about how its agricultural sector has developed and has been organized and financed and what challenges it faces. After the lecture, the group visited Duijnisveld Sweet Pepper, Sion Orchids and Greenpack. On Friday, visits were paid to FloraHolland and Rabobank in Eindhoven. Based on the seminar and visits, many discussions took place about the (im-)possibilities for implementation of the Dutch (financial) techniques into Albanian agriculture.

HollandDoor wants to thank above mentioned companies for their hospitality. 

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UTZ (www.utz.org), who is known for its ongoing efforts to make this world more sustainable, requested HollandDoor to organize an inspiring visit to a high-tech Dutch greenhouse. The objective of this visit was to get about 35 UTZ country representatives, who are directly in contact with farmers of coffee, tea and cacao, acqainted with  high-tech greenhouse production facilities of vegetables. Proposed result was to trigger the minds of UTZ employees to think of new strategies to optimize production systems and connected processes at UTZ certified farms.

As part of the UTZ Global meeting in Amsterdam, HollandDoor organized a tailor-made study tour to Duijnisveld Sweet Pepper in Nieuwveen, on Saturday 23 January 2016. The morning started with an opening seminar by Niek Botden about the current global agro challenges. After which Ruud and Wendy Duijnisveld gave a tour on their company during which they explained and showed in detail how a Dutch high-tech sweet pepper greenhouse works.  Themes like plant physiology, production, logistics and marketing, energy, irrigation, fertigation, hydroponics and recirculation of water and nutrients, biological pest control and labor matters were discussed in detail.

The UTZ participants were impressed by the technology and the company’s working procedures which resulted in interesting discussions about conversion and implementation possibilities in daily and future global UTZ certified farms. The morning was completed with a nice lunch in Nieuwveen. 

HollandDoor wants to thank Duijnisveld for their hospitality.

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