seminar
Economic growth, more digitalisation but uncertainty about Brexit
For greenhouse growers the first two months of the year are characterised by various specialised trade exhibitions. From the large-scale German trade fairs, IPM and Fruit Logistica, to Sival in France and HortiContact in the Netherlands, all the organisers are positive about their upcoming events. Developments in Europe – both within and outside greenhouse horticulture – are followed with interest. That is demonstrated by the broad program of seminars and excursions being offered because the modern trade fair is much more than just a trade fair.
The series opens on Monday 16 to Thursday 19 January with Sival, in Angers, France, where experts and professionals in the pot plant sector can attend four main events. ‘Plant production meetings’ will be held on the first two days of the exhibition during which researchers and other sector representatives will discuss and hold dialogue on new developments. From day 2 to 4 the emphasis is on new technology in the horticultural sector. Various start-ups get the opportunity to present their innovations. Indeed the newcomers account for an extra 600 m2 of stand space this year.
Market developments
As the leading event for the international ornamental sector the IPM in Germany’s Essen, from Tuesday 24 to Friday 27 January, has taken the initiative to conduct an extensive analysis of the European market. The report by Dr. Marianne Altmann concludes that the global flow of goods is in a state of flux. There is a stable demand within the EU while outside the EU there is potential for growth. Also in Germany, the flower and plant market is stable and the continued consumer confidence will secure demand in 2017. The rising prices at retail level promote optimism.
However, this is not true for all links (growers) in the added value chain. Brexit and Russia were two dominant themes throughout 2016 whose effects will only be seen in the long term. It is not wise to assume that everything will end well and all countries would be advised to look for alternative distribution channels and target markets. This can be achieved by working closely with existing trading partners in and outside Europe. Due to this reorientation the flow of goods, together with changing consumer behaviour in a number of EU countries, is likely to alter in 2017. In this respect, the increase in direct deliveries by the major trading centres in the production countries will certainly be a driving force.
Dutch ambassador
The Netherlands plays a prominent role in the above mentioned market analysis made by IPM. So, it is hardly a coincidence that this nation is the partner country for IPM Essen this year. For years the leading international horticultural trade fair has been an important platform for the Dutch green sector; this time about 400 Dutch stand holders will present their expertise and networks under the motto: 'two countries, one passion'.
Furthermore, during the International Horticulture Forum on 26 January the topics discussed by Dutch experts include ‘German-Dutch cooperation along the border’, ‘Logistical developments’, ‘Well-being and sustainability’ and 'Trends, (consumer-) developments and communications’.
The Dutch representation at the fair is jointly organised by the trade associations VGB (Association of wholesalers in floriculture products) and Anthos (flower bulbs and nursery stock), the Dutch commission ‘Top sector horticulture & propagation material’, the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs as well as the Dutch Agricultural Council in Berlin.
New sales markets
Fruit Logistica in Berlin, from Wednesday 8 to Friday 10 February, is not only held at the other side of Germany, it focuses mainly on vegetables within the horticultural sector with the emphasis on trade instead of cultivation. This event is one of the world’s leading trade fairs for the horticultural supply chain and here too the organisers focus on market developments over the short and long term.
It appears that the Brussels agricultural policy is facing a changing mind-set on the promotion of fruit and vegetables. Until now, 70% of funds were directed into the internal European market with 30% available for promoting exports to non-EU countries. In future this balance will be reversed, according to Miguel Ceballos Barón of the European Trade Commission. “Future prospects for the industry clearly lie in exports. The promotion of exports will help capture growth markets such as those in Asia, India and Africa.”
The trade fair in Berlin describes itself as the ‘central hub’ of global trade activity and a must for anyone looking to increase their exports. In February 2016 more than 70,000 buyers and visitors from 130 countries from all continents visited the fair. Participation in the upcoming fair is expected to rise again.
Dutch innovation
The winter quartet of European horticultural trade fairs closes with HortiContact in the Evenementenhal Gorinchem, the Netherlands, from Tuesday 14 to Thursday 16 February 2017. This is a new name for a well-established event. The name has been changed because over the last few years the fair has developed from a meeting place for the Dutch horticultural sector into a wider international event. Therefore the Dutch name Tuinbouw Relatiedagen has been replaced with the easier to pronounce ‘HortiContact’.
The fair in Gorinchem (35 km east of Rotterdam) focuses on the Netherlands as a centre of horticultural knowledge. The Dutch greenhouse sector is continually innovating. In addition, its nurseries and knowledge centres openly share new information and experiences with growers all over the world. On Tuesday 14 and Wednesday 15 February 2017 international growers have the opportunity to get up-to-date with the latest developments in Dutch greenhouses during the HortiContact Tour.
Leading growers
This two-day excursion is jointly organised by HortiContact, Uniglobe Westland Business Travel and In Greenhouses magazine. The program will include: Visits to leading growers (specialised in cut flowers, pot plants and greenhouse vegetables); seminars presented by researchers and lecturers from renowned research centres; and of course a visit to the exhibition.
Visits to greenhouses and research facilities will take place on the first day. The second day takes place at the HortiContact venue where researchers from Wageningen University & Research will make exciting presentations about the fascinating world of plant science and the latest project being undertaken by the university in the field of greenhouse construction, the winter light greenhouse.
Professionalization
Last year the organiser, Evenementenhal, also set itself a new course. With the increasing popularity of the trade fair the organisers took a step to becoming more professional: they introduced a new house style and accompanying logo and the website also got a makeover.
Changes were also made to the online pre-registration. Every visitor now receives a personalised badge with a QR-code. This badge is also linked to Evenementenhal’s new smartphone-app.
Both visitors and exhibitors benefit from this app: Exhibitors can scan the badge so they no longer need to exchange business cards with visitors; visitors receive information through the app on topics that are of interest to him or her so a visit to the exhibition becomes much more efficient.
Summary
In addition to exhibitors and visitors making and maintaining contacts, the horticultural trade shows place more and more emphasis on exchange of knowledge. The events that take place in January and February in Germany, France and Netherlands are increasingly adding seminars, workshops and excursions to the traditional trade show. To be able to follow the trends and developments closely, the show organisers are also initiating market research.
Text: Roger Abbenhuijs
Prize Contest Jungle Talks
Jungle Talks is a new concept in the horticultural sector and intends to exchange and transfer knowledge between horticultural professionals and to make crossovers between horticulture and other sectors.
Being a new initiative in a new and still to be developed market, the organizer of Jungle Talks, Ideavelop S.A. from Costa Rica, has decided to open a contest to stimulate creativity and to help improve Jungle Talks on any possible level.
First prize: A Green Circle trip to Costa Rica for 2 persons (double room) in the low season (September – Mid November or April – Mid June). The Green Circle can be considered as the most creative way to explore Costa Rica in a timespan of two weeks. This statement is backed by NatGeo Traveller from The Netherlands by means of a cover story in their spring issue of May 2015. In case the winner of the first prize would prefer to travel in different months, the difference in costs for both The Green Circle as such as well as for both tickets, will be on the expense of the prize winner.
More info on the Green Circle can be found at www.the-green-circle.com or www.edventure.biz.
Please fill out the table below as complete as possible, either in English, Spanish or Dutch and send it to Ed Smit via ideas@ideavelop.biz before Sunday June 12, 2016:
- name
- surname
- cell phone number
- skype adress
- company or organisation
- website
- your idea or suggestion for Junge Talks (max. 500 words)
Related
Room for 324 MW geothermal heat in the Westland and Oostland regions
On 21 January 2016 a seminar was held at Priva in De Lier with the title ‘Geothermal energy, how difficult can this be?!’ Geology and engineering, as well as all the financing, success factors, benefits and risks associated with geothermal projects, were discussed extensively during the seminar.
Coen Leo, manager at PanTerra Geoconsultants, has many years of experience in geology. He explained why you can’t simply start drilling at random locations. He summarised the numerous risks in the fields of geology, engineering and operations and discussed how these could be kept in check. According to Leo, there are abundant opportunities in the Westland and Oostland regions for new geothermal projects. ‘The 70 megawatts that six working doublets can currently produce could be increased to 324, based on the available space below ground.’
Peter de Vreede, a geothermal heat specialist at Flynth, zoomed in on the organisational and financial factors and risks associated with geothermal heat. ‘As a grower, you need neighbours who will join you in setting up such a large-scale project. The project organisation and management of a geothermal heat cluster are key success factors.’ With regard to finances, it become clear that SDE Renewable Energy Production Incentive programme was highly relevant, while the MEI Market Introduction Energy Innovations programme will no longer apply to geothermal heat.
Frans-Peter Dechering, general manager at Priva, appealed to growers to stop focusing exclusively on the financial side of the matter. ‘Customers, society and nature are factors that cannot be overlooked. Consider the possibility of supplying the residential market with geothermal heat. Another factor associated with geothermal heat is its smaller carbon footprint. Besides this, it will help us decrease our reliance on oil.’
‘Not geology, but a crystal ball’
Jos Scheffers spoke of his experiences with the Green Well Westland project, a geothermal heat well to which ten growers are connected. ‘You can’t rely on geology; it’s more like gazing into crystal ball: the initial results remain unpredictable for a very long period of time,’ according to the entrepreneur. ‘You never know in advance what your flow rate per m3 per hour will be.’ Nevertheless, Scheffers is highly satisfied with the ultimate result. ‘Until today, this project has covered six years in which we have had to deal with numerous surprises. However, if asked, I would gladly do it all over again.’ He would, however, spend a little more time on choosing his materials. ‘You call in external advice because you don’t have the expertise you need. Based on what I know now, I would have made different choices.’
The seminar’s organisers PanTerra, Flynth, Priva and the Platform for Geothermal Energy look back in satisfaction at a successful event, with a full hall and plenty of interaction and in which a great deal of knowledge was shared.
Source/photo: Priva.
‘We are putting sustainability on the map in Central America’
NethWork started at the beginning of 2012 as a cooperation between various Dutch horticultural suppliers wanting to contribute to innovation and the sustainable development of horticulture in Central America. The driving forces behind NethWork are Ed Smit and his wife Renée Snijders, who moved to Costa Rica in 2002 from the Dutch Westland area, as well as Jos Leeters, who lives in the Netherlands. Read this interview with Ed Smit about how three and a half years of NethWork contributed to the horticultural industry in Central America
How and why did you end up in Costa Rica thirteen years ago? And what have you been doing for the past few years?
‘I started out as a distributor for Koppert Biological Systems, because I wanted to try to reduce the use of chemical crop protection in Costa Rica. This proved to be a long and difficult path however and that is why I started in 2006 with Ideavelop, a consultancy firm that develops ideas, conducts market research and trade missions, and organises seminars and events for the horticulture industry. One of the projects we carried out in 2007 was an in-depth market study of the horticultural sector in Central America - in Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador – an assignment of the Dutch government. Several interesting trade missions and various orders for Dutch companies were a spin-off of this project. In addition, we set up a travel agency for adventurous holidays in Costa Rica: Edventure. And last but not least, Renée, Jos Leeters and I took the initiative to start NethWork, the horticultural cluster that was officially established three and a half years ago.’
Central America is the world’s largest supplier of pot plants and a key producer of cuttings.
How did NethWork start?
‘Central America is composed of six different countries, each of which represents a relatively small horticultural market. Doing business is therefore no easy task for European horticultural suppliers; you keep reinventing the wheel. At the same time, opportunities abound in this part of the world. Central America is the world’s largest supplier of pot plants and a key producer of cuttings and therefore the region has high potential. The problem however, lies in lack of expertise and technology in order to successfully (and sustainably) cultivate new products such as cut flowers and greenhouse vegetables. This has prompted us to get together with a group of Dutch horticulture suppliers and to join forces in promoting the further development of the Central American market.’
How does NethWork differ from other international horticultural clusters?
‘Many aspects related to our approach are unique, such as ensuring that all the organisations in the cluster are completely complementary, eliminating competition between members. Everyone has the right to veto potential members if they compete with existing cluster activities. The acceptance criteria applied by other international horticultural clusters is generally more lenient.
‘We also attach considerable importance to marketing and communication; aspects that are generally overlooked in the horticultural industry. We entered into a partnership with Imagro, an agency for strategy and creation and we can now present ourselves via a modern corporate design and we are also active on social media. What we do, we want to do well and we also communicate this clearly within the cluster. This is another aspect in which NethWork distinguishes itself from other horticultural clusters. In addition, we are not a top-down organisation, but work bottom up. All our decisions must be supported by all our members.’
How is all of this funded?
‘When we officially launched NethWork at the beginning of 2012, our activities were in part made possible via the 2g@there programme of the Dutch government. This subsidy program facilitated the set-up of Dutch clusters in the exploration of new markets. This financial support came to an end in July 2015 and NethWork is now entirely self-supporting. This means that we count now more than ever on our members’ proactive approach and also had to raise the financial contribution of each member. As a result, several organisations cancelled their membership, but we now work with a cluster of nine, highly motivated enterprises.’
In the near future, it is expected that growers can demonstrate their compliance with all sorts of regulations on a 24/7 basis in order to obtain their “License to Be”.
What are NethWork’s core values?
“NethWork’s core values are transparency, innovation and sustainability; these are the common threads running through all of our activities and endorsed by all of our members and the basis of our slogan ‘Think Orange, Grow Green’. Of course, respect, trust and unanimity are important too. We apply a no-nonsense, bottom-up approach, which entirely reflects what Renée and I believe in as entrepreneurs. You could, in fact, consider NethWork an extension of our own vision and mission.’
Just how important is sustainable cultivation in the horticulture industry?
‘In the future, a horticultural company will have to put itself to the test every single day of the week, also in the field of sustainability. After all, the world is becoming more transparent and society is becoming more and more vigilant of what is going on in the horticultural sector. A onetime audit that will get you certified for an entire year will soon be a thing of the past. In the near future, it is expected that growers can demonstrate their compliance with all sorts of regulations on a 24/7 basis in order to obtain their “License to Be”. NethWork aims to help the horticultural industry to make these sustainable methods more comprehensible. ’
Can you elaborate on some of the activities developed by NethWork in the past few years?
‘The project that stands out most is Journey2Sustainability (J2S), a pilot project we opened in the spring of 2014 in Guatemala. This project helped Guatemalan company Palki – a renowned pot plant producer in Central America - to implement more sustainable practices. The aspects we improved included recirculation, composting, energy consumption, efficiency and the nursery’s personnel policy. With J2S we want to gain more insight into sustainable cultivation practices and, in doing so, inspire other growers in Central America and elsewhere in the world. Projects like this enable NethWork to present itself as a cluster that can help horticultural producers to switch to alternative cultivation practices that, in addition to being sustainable, are also profitable. The “P” of “Profit” always comes first, followed by “Planet” and “People”. This pilot is already bearing fruit: the project was nominated last spring for the “Green Entrepreneur of the Year Award” and “Guatemala’s most sustainable company”. In addition, virtually all NethWork members were able to provide products and services to this project, which also generated income and, therefore, profit.’
Nine members have decided to continue without additional government funding and this clearly shows that everyone recognises the added value of this cluster.
You also offer management training courses. What is the procedure behind this?
‘We select managers from Central American horticulture businesses who are then invited to participate in a three-week training programme organized by NethWork members in the Netherlands. During this programme, they get to know one another better, building trust both within the group and towards the NethWork members. This creates a good foundation for Central American horticulturists to place orders with NethWork members and has enabled us to make a name for ourselves in these countries’ horticulture industries. Until now, the training programmes were partly funded by government grants, but we are currently in the process of commercialising this project. The process is comparable to NethWork as a collective. The first step was taken with support from the Dutch government, but the objective is to become self-reliant as soon as possible.’
How has NethWork contributed to the participating organisations?
‘It is difficult to pinpoint what three years of NethWork has brought its members in terms of financial gain. As Ideavelop, we don’t have access to our fellow members’ order portfolios, but that’s not really necessary. Nine members have decided to continue without additional government funding and this clearly shows that everyone recognises the added value of this cluster. This also goes beyond simply generating orders in Central America. If one of us were, for instance, engaged in a project in China, this person would undoubtedly involve his NethWork mates. This is certainly a benefit, particularly on the short term.’
Our final goal is clear: we aim to show people what sustainability is all about but, even more than that, demonstrate what can be gained from sustainability.
What are NethWork’s goals for the future? What are your plans?
‘We aim, above all, to expand our activities in Latin America. We are considering to enter the Mexican market and look into opportunities in several other South American countries. Besides, we want to involve consumers more in Journey2Sustainability. The horticultural industry develops many wonderful and sustainable products, but we need to tell these stories to the final consumer as well. Therefore the roll-out of the philosophy behind Journey2Sustainability, vertically and throughout the entire chain, is a new challenge that we are wholeheartedly engaged in. Our final goal is clear: we aim to show people what sustainability is all about but, even more than that, demonstrate what can be gained from sustainability. It is a long process, we takes small steps and we rely on a bottom-up approach, with the full commitment of all the parties involved.’
NethWork's participating companies: Priva, Van der Knaap Substrates, Aweta, Modiform, Luiten Greenhouses, Van der Heide Foliekassen, JConnectA, Imagro and Ideavelop.
More information is available at www.nethwork.info and www.journey2sustainability.com.
Text: Tuinbouwteksten.nl/Ank van Lier.