Fruits and vegetables export as a vehicle to link agriculture and nutrition

In the afternoon of Friday October 30, twenty representatives from companies, knowledge institutes, NGOs and government met in the Ministry of Economic Affairs in The Hague. The event forms part of a series of action-oriented discussion events organized by the Netherlands Working group on Global Nutrition (NWGN), the Food & Business Knowledge Platform (F&BKP) and the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Economic Affairs of the Netherlands.

The aim of this series is to scale up Dutch efforts towards achieving Nutritional Security. The series are inspired by the importance of nutrition security on the international and national agenda, and the cabinet’s call for joint action: “based on the strength of the Netherlands, to end global hunger in one generation, and creating a foundation to feed 9 billion people by 2050 in a sustainable way”.

This particular event explored how (Dutch) agribusiness companies involved in activities related to the import of agricultural produce from developing countries to the Netherlands can contribute to nutrition security in agriculture. The event was opened by contributions from Patricia Wagenmakers (Ministry of Economic Affairs (EA)) and Marcel Beukeboom (Ministry of Foreign Affairs (FA)). Building on the joint policy letters from the two ministries, EA and FA are looking for innovative partnerships that use the Dutch Diamond approach to address the great challenge of achieving food and nutrition security for all. An objective that is reflected strongly in the recently launched Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in SDG2.

Please download the report about the event (PDF).