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| Logistics
and Infrastructure |
AGRO-FOOD IN FLOWERS AND FOOD
[EDIT:
Maastricht, May 30]
Flora Holland, where this webcast begins, has already attracted the attention of ‘The Economist’ in “Petal Power”, May 10.
It brings a green focus to Venlo. However, some 11,500 businesses in south-east Brabant and north Limburg are active in
the Agro-food cluster. They produce, process, improve and distribute top quality agro products, generating some two
billion euros of added value. The CPB scenarios show that the food and additives industry offers good prospects for
the future. Agro products that originate in Brabant and Limburg are sold mainly in Western Europe.
Greenport Venlo is an economic development concept that will encourage an agro/food/health/fresh produce and logistics
cluster to develop. The Greenport development is linked to the production industry (e.g. glasshouse equipment), the
logistics sector and research into nutrition carried out at the universities in Maastricht and Wageningen. Breakthroughs
in the life sciences will also have a huge impact on the farming sector, which will cultivate products and ingredients
based on “science-based evidence” concerning the relationship between food, nutrition and health. After all, consumers
are increasingly concerned about having a healthy diet.
Greenport is a promising development because of the constant roll-out of new products and services in the immediate
environs. It is a centre that has drawn many different projects, including in disparate areas such as spatial
planning and energy. The Greenport program office will be both pivotal and flexible, and as such it qualifies
for a place on the Acceleration Agenda. The enormous importance of the agricultural sector, the innovative trend
in the sector itself, and the impact on employment all justify a substantial investment in this project.
The fruit and vegetable auction in Venlo (ZON) has recently been expanded considerably and has had a huge impact
on both the agro business and on the traditional logistics sector operating along the Rijnmond-Ruhr goods transport
axis. Maastricht University has been involved in planning a permanent Food Campus on the Floriade 2012 site, which
will have a Healthy Food Innovation Centre (ICGV) as a knowledge hub. Collaboration with south-east Brabant
(Helmond) and Wageningen University is of crucial importance in this regard.
Knowhouse BV in Horst, also covered in the webcast, operates as a knowledge broker between the agro business and
research organizations. Horst is also the home of a number of innovative companies that collaborate on projects
involving healthy food, healthy farming practices and sustainability. The ICGV is an addition to this cluster
and concentrates on developing agro-sector products with a higher added value than existing products. It has,
for example, improved the conditioning of new crops so that it is easier to add medicinal and nutritional
ingredients later on in the chain. That is the aim of the ICGV participants, i.e. the business community,
Knowhouse, Wageningen University and Research Centre (WUR), Maastricht University (UM) and the Higher
Agricultural School (HAS) in ‘s-Hertogenbosch. ICGV expects to produce several dozens of product innovations
in the next few years, all of which will make important contributions to restructuring the farming sector in
northern Limburg and eastern Brabant.
Acceleration Agenda Projects
- Greenport, a comprehensive project that will not only impact the food sector but also south-east
Netherlands’ important logistics sector. A program office will be working on developing the Greenport concept.
- Healthy Food Innovation Centre/Food Campus Venlo, aimed at developing new food and health technologies.
- Greenport Utilities & Connections, a detailed plan for setting up new energy systems in the greenhouse
horticulture sector, with energy-saving components and various favorable environmental effects, for example
a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions.
- Master’s program in Logistics, a top-level program focusing on one of the core sectors of south-east
Netherlands’ economy. The program is important both for the agro/food sector and in a wider context.
Production facilities may well be leaving the area, but products made elsewhere will still have to find
their way to customers in clever ways. A Master’s program that focuses on this issue will enable the
logistics sector to make the transition to “value added services”.
http://www.versnellingsagenda.nl
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