The Farm Consultancy Group (FCG, www.fcgagric.com) requested HollandDoor to organize their annual study tour from 22nd to 24th June. The FCG is a group of farm consultants and agricultural advisors that are situated throughout the United Kingdom (mainly in the southern half). They are specialized in dairy farming and business management.

 

On the first and third day HollandDoor prepared a visiting program with the major focus on two subjects:

• care farms and small scale food processing;
• the nutrient situation in The Netherlands (animal manure logistics, processing, recycling).

On the second day the FCG members had a training at Cow Signals.

 

The study tour started on Monday at the Zonnehoeve care farm at Zeewolde where they were received by the initiator Mr. Piet van IJzendoorn. After an interesting tour of the farm the group left for Nijkerk, where they were received at Cumela by Mr. Jaap Uenk. He gave an extensive presentation on the nutrient situation in The Netherlands, which led to the conclusion that the Dutch animal manure regulation system may not be what the UK farmers are waiting for! After that there was still time left to visit the ECOFERM of the Kroes family at Uddel where the group was introduced to the closed-cycle thinking on the calve farm with manure digestion and duckweed production on the roof. The group expected an experimental farm and was surprised by the big scale.

 

On Wednesday morning the program started with a presentation by Mrs. Linette Mak of the Foundation Landwaard at Oosterhout on local food production, marketing and promotion. It turned out that much of the problems that are encountered, are the same for Holland and the UK. Next the group travelled to the manure processing plant of Groot-Zevert at Beltrum to see in practice which techniques can be used to process manure and to produce valuable new raw materials from/with it. To their surprise there was again duckweed production, which gave a lot of discussion about the economic viability of this production for animal feed. The last visit was at dairy farm 't Vorster at De Heurne, where the group was received by the Keuper family and Mr. Simon Lieftink from ID-Agro. As dairy consultants the group was back on known territory and they were impressed by the new Cow Lounge stable, the milking robots and the automatic litter spreading in the stable. Only after much discussion, many pictures and lots of questions the group finally said goodbye in the afternoon in order not to miss their planes.

 

The FCG members were very content with the amount of information and impressions they had received during only two (short) days of visits. They invited the visited farms and companies to return a visit to them in the UK.

 

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Under the title "Enhancing entrepreneurship in Georgian agribusiness, based on the value chain approach" HollandDoor has trained two Georgian organisations in October 2014 and January 2015 in the Georgian capital Tbilisi. With HollandDoor's help, now the ngo Georgian Rural Education and Entrepreneurship Network (GREEN) and the Georgian-European Higher Education Institution (GEU) have a better capacity in transferring knowledge and skills to farmers, sme's, public officers and students and are able to establishing linkages, partnerships and collaborations between actors in the supply chain(s). Both organisations can contribute to the enhancement of Dutch Georgian-business cooperation.

 

HollandDoor has conducted this hands-on training with a mixture of knowledge regarding market developments and cultivation technology as well as skills in training and coaching. Four value chains got special attention: berries, tomatoes, nuts and grapes.

This training cycle is funded by the Tailor-Made Training program of Nuffic, the expertise and service centre for internationalization in Dutch education. Nuffic offers cross-border capacity development and knowledge exchange programs.

 

For more information, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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An agricultural trademission from Moldova visited in period of 13 until 17 October Belgium and The Netherlands. This roadshow was initiated by CCI (Moldavan chamber of commerce), as part of a project of East Invest which is managed by Eurochambres. CBI (department Dutch Ministry Foreign Affairs) requested HollandDoor to organize a tailormade and turnkey program for Wednesday 15 until Friday 17 October.  

 

The mission participants were mainly board members of larger agro companies from Moldova, all active in production, processing and (export) sales of mainly fruits, juices, dried fruits and cereals. 

 

Moldova recently signed an association and trade agreement with the EU. Moldovan companies currently define their strategies how agro import and export to EU can be improved. Since the Russian blockage of EU agro exports, also Moldova lost an important export destination.

 

Objective of the trademission was to increase awareness and inderstanding of the knowledge level and technical and economical infrastructure of Belgium and Dutch companies. Also more information about EU retail market conditions was requested. Of course, the delegation was looking also for new contact networks to discuss further trade possibilities and cooperation to enforce Moldovan production and sales configuration.

 

During the stay in the Netherlands, the delegation visited Prominent telersvereniging, FloraHolland, GreenQ, RVJ Eurasia Services, Roveg Fruit Trading, Groen Agro Control and Aweta. Besides the visits, also some presentations were shown and many business matchmaking activities took place which resulted in new contacts which should further be explored. 

 

The delegation was very pleased with the program in The Netherlands as organized by CBI and HollandDoor. A letter of gratitude was received, see here.

 

For a more extensive picture overview, click here

 

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Demokwekerij Westland organized in cooperation with Lentiz Cursus en Consult and HortiBedrijfsschool the course "Minimaster Technic and Maintenance Horticulture". HollandDoor was responsible for the excursions within this course. 

 

During the course, the new covered and heated swimmingpool Zuiderpark in The Hague was visited. During an extensive tour, the training participants could have a look at the technical operating room. HollandDoor consultant Harry Barendse mediated a discussion between the trainees and the technical managers of the swimming pool. Many similarities with water management in horticulture were found and discussed. 

 

In the second part of the afternoon, Aad Verduijn, another HollandDoor consultant, gave the group an extensive tour at Ter Laak Orchids with a focus on greenhouse installations which could be compared with the swimming pool operations. Click here for the press release of Demokwekerij

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