Fit-to-Purpose strategies by Dutch agrofood companies
Mid 2015, Pure Birds and the Postharvest Network, supported by the Food & Business Knowledge Platform, started a programme around Fit-to-Purpose strategies of Dutch agrofood companies. The Dutch agrofood sector is increasingly recognizing the strategic business opportunities in emerging markets. Making an investment towards these markets requires defining a market-specific strategy. Products and services might have to be redesigned to fit the need of developing countries, instead of “pushing” existing products directly into the new market. A successful strategy can therefore be seen as “Fit-to-Purpose”.
The objective of the programme was to stimulate entrepreneurship and innovation of Dutch companies in agrofood value chains in developing countries. The programme started with a first Fit-to-Purpose kick-off session on August 27, 2015 at the New World Campus in The Hague. During this meeting experiences were shared from various companies including the Cofounder of the Dutch Agricultural Development and Trading Company (DADTCO). The company Geerlofs also provided interesting insights about their strategy orientation in developing cooling solutions for international markets.
A second event with interested companies and organizations was held on February 9, 2016 at Viscon in ‘s-Gravendeel. Aim of this meeting was to share experiences on how to come to a fit-to-purpose strategy. The case of “GrowPact – from seed to crop” was shared as inspiration and example.
As follow-up to both events a position paper on Fit-to-Purpose was drafted, as well as three factsheets on the Fit-to-Purpose strategies of the following companies:
- DADTCO – Creating the cassava revolution
- Geerlofs – Cool chain in Africa
- GrowPact – From seed to crop
With the publication of these documents, the programme came to an end in April 2017. The content and approach of Fit-to-Purpose will be integrated in the broader Feeding Cities theme.
