On Wednesday morning in the Oude Rotterdamse Citrusveiling (Rotterdam citrus auction) annual spring conference of Greenport Holland was held. The central theme of this day was Mainport crosses over to Greenport. The greenport conferences are held three times a year and are an important meeting place for representatives from the sector, government and politics within the horticultural cluster, the Greenports. During the spring conference the link between the Rotterdam harbour and the horticultural cluster was central.
The day was opened in the auction hall of the old Rotterdam Citrus Auction House.
Chairman Loek Hermans of Greenport Holland opened the conference by presenting an explanation of the present progress of the agenda 2012 -2106. Hermans mentioned the large number of projects received. "At the moment we focus on recording the budgets and will put pressure on the Ministry of Economic Affairs Agriculture and Innovation to keep the present budgets. Decreases will not be agreed to." Hermans announced that he had in the meantime collected 60 million innovation moneys. This amount is considerably lower than the 150 million euro the sector had set in for. Hermans also gave an impression of the state of affairs relating to the proportion of private investments from the sector compared to public money. He mentioned where the opportunities are both for public money and business and the agenda in order to obtain the best results.
GPH chairman Loek Hermans and Michel Jansen, managing director Total Produce
Stijn Effting of the Port of Rotterdam explained the Haven vision 2030. He spoke about the future development and opportunities offered to Greenport. The expectation is that in 2030 the transfer of cargo in the Rotterdam harbour will amount to about 700 million tons. Effting mentioned also that the development of the cooling container can play an important role, but also the development in the area of residue heat and the organic economy offer opportunities.
Philip Smits
Philip Smits, CEO of The Greenery talked during a session about the innovation theme "More with Less". Smits spoke about the large role sustainability has within The Greenery. Smits: "We set targets four years ago in the area of sustainability. We also looked at things we could change and how we should tackle these. Not only with ourselves but also at the grower. Think in this respect about the lettuce cultivation on water or the geo-thermal projects."
Sjaak van der Tak
Ewald van Vliet, mayor of Lansingerland presented the new Greenport atlas. From this digital atlas a host of information may be obtained in relation to the Dutch horticultural cluster.