CREATING FAIR
AND SUSTAINABLE
POTATO VALUE CHAINS
Our Corporate Social Responsibility
As an agricultural organization, we feel a direct connection with nature and the environment. The potato also meets the increasing demand for a healthy, sustainable food source. Agrico is committed to food security and food safety through the cultivation of potatoes, and specifically through developing innovative potato varieties and enhancing and establishing sustainable potato value chains around the world.
We believe that excellent growth is possible for everyone. Our organization is structured as a cooperative in order to support the interests of farmers. We feel sincerely involved with the needs and interests of our customers, and to this end, we commit to supplying high-quality potato varieties and sound, expert advice to further increase the certainty of a great harvest. Naturally, we comply with the applicable legislation and regulations at all times in everything we do.
Five pillars
Our CSR policy reflects who we are and the way we want to live and work together with respect for people, the environment and society. We have incorporated this into our strategic goals based on five pillars that align with the international United Nations CSR themes and the interests of our stakeholders.
1. Food supply and new markets
The potato is by nature a highly sustainable crop due to its low water consumption and the high yield relative to the soil area in which it is cultivated. Agrico is utilizing a sustainable breeding program to work on expanding the cultivation possibilities (including in challenging agricultural areas), and further enhancing quality. This results in more cultivation options, increased yield per hectare for the farmers, and a substantially lower risk of crop failure. In turn, this contributes directly to ensuring global food security.
2. The environment and CO2 reduction
We are working very deliberately towards reducing our environmental footprint. For example, we are making use of cleaner trucks and more inland shipping in order to decrease the CO2 emissions associated with our transport movements. We have already halved the energy consumption of our greenhouse complex and we work with a compensation plan to mitigate our air travel.
Thanks to our sustainable breeding program, we are developing potato varieties with natural resistances that correspondingly reduce dependence on crop protection products.
3. Fair and responsible production
Excellent growth is fair growth, and that’s why we encourage a fair price for all. We increase farmers' incomes by increasing the yields per harvest, significantly reducing the risk of crop failure and developing sustainable potato value chains. This creates value that benefits everyone in the potato chain.
4. Committed and healthy employees
Our employees share a passion for potatoes that drives their work on developing better varieties, exploring new markets and growing as an organization. We encourage a sustainable sense of collaboration throughout the entire potato value chain, and we are committed to the health and sustainable employability of our staff. After all, growth starts with people.
5. Health and innovation
We are dedicated to improving food security through means such as independent certification, cultivation protocols and stress testing. Our breeding objectives guide us in developing sustainable, innovative varieties that further enhance the nutritional value of the potato as a food source. We record everything we learn about and from potato cultivation, and share this information in the potato value chain wherever possible.
Our CSR policy is based on ten Sustainable Development Goals
The aim of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals is to change and improve the world and make it sustainable. At Agrico, we call this Excellent Growth. Excellent growth is fair growth for everyone. The five pillars of our CSR policy are embedded in our strategy and linked to ten of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
Publications CSR
We ended our symposium with a challenging panel discussion on food policy & execution from 3 perspectives: bilateral opportunities, public and private partnerships & global policies. Jan van Hoogen and Willem Schoustra talked with the three panelists Myrtille Danse, Roger Martini and Wijnand van IJssel about food policy & execution.
Michel de Bruin drives Agrico’s expansion in emerging markets and leads global partnerships for food systems transformation. He plays a key role in regions such as Kenya, Tanzania, Ukraine, China, and India. All markets that are part of the geopolitical powerplay as explained earlier by Rob de Wijk. Michel’s understanding of local contexts and the difference that passionate people can make, has been instrumental in driving the success of these initiatives.
Yosuke Kotsuji is an emerging market investment professional who focuses on Agribusiness at IFC, a member of the World Bank Group. As a new business manager, he has been focusing on scaling IFC’s agribusiness program in Africa to strengthen food security and farmer incomes, working in close collaboration with key internal and external stakeholders. Yosuke explained that – in order to move forward - funding is essential. Local funding, however, often proves complex.
Bart de Steenhuijsen Piters works at Wageningen Economic Research on food system transformations. He explained what food systems are and what initiates transformation. Afterwards he zoomed into Africa, explained informal markets and how a minority of smallholders can realise food systems transformation. Finally the ambassador of Kenya to the Netherlands, righteously pointed out that value should be added at the place of production.
Rob de Wijk started our symposium by appealing for a broad perspective on global food systems, including having geopolitics as the foundation of trade agreements and a fundamental change in our – Dutch and EU - current foreign policy mindset. Pursuing strategic dependencies in foreign policy, instead of the current value-based approach. Hereafter we will summarise his analysis and calls to action.
Would you like to know more about CSR?
Agrico is committed to food security and food safety through the cultivation of potatoes, and specifically through developing innovative potato varieties and enhancing and establishing sustainable potato value chains around the world. Agrico utilizes a sustainable breeding program to work on expanding the cultivation possibilities (including in challenging agricultural areas), and further enhancing quality. We are working very deliberately towards reducing our environmental footprint. For example, we are making use of cleaner trucks and more inland shipping in order to decrease the CO2 emissions associated with our transport movements. Excellent growth is fair growth, and that’s why we encourage a fair price for all. We promote sustainable cooperation within the entire potato value chain and we are committed to improving food safety through independent certification and extensive quality assurance.
If you have any specific questions or would like to know what Agrico can do for you with respect to corporate social responsibility, please feel free to contact us.
René Vernooij
