PW-ACTUA market with added impulse Creparts. It is, of course, a good idea that an exchange trades in more than one product so that they can spread the costs, but, in our opinion, the focus was a bit too much on this particular debt product. Not so long ago, at the end of 2008, they split up Commodities and Creparts which resulted in a new exchange organisation: Eucomex. Moreover, it is important to give the Commodities a boost and Hannover – which is one of the smaller exchanges – has not enough power to do that. In short, Commodities stripped of other products will be a bite-sized chunk with enormous potential as long as it ends up in a good ‘Umfeld’. That now will happen to Eurex., but that won’t stop my involvement, on the contrary. Our contacts with Eurexhave intensified in the past year. However, we can only try to keep up the instrument and guarantee that the Dutch influence remains optimal. Subsequently, the potato sector – growing, trade and industry – must make an even greater succes of things by trading contracts at Eurex, so that big turnovers are a reality not only in exceptional seasons. I would like to add: “A lot of potato contracts a day, keeps the sorrow away”.’ ● Eric Casteleijn: the new technical director of the Dutch General Inspection Service for Agricultural Seed and Seed Potatoes (NAK) On 1 May, Dr Eric Casteleijn (50) of Zeewolde and father of four started as technical director of the NAK. The short introductory interview our editor had with him shows that he is intentionally looking for a link with the practical side of the NAK’s activities. He likes to call a spade a spade, and he spontaneously opens the interview. ‘Starting up and maintaining quality systems and inspecting products has always been one of my jobs. Immediately after completing his biology studies at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam and obtaining his doctorate at the Medical faculty of the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, Casteleijn switched over from research to practical work. First as R&D and business development manager at the Unilever Research laboratory in Vlaardingen. His responsibilities there were the quality control of the purchase of the washing preparations department. A department which generates billions of euros a year for Unilever. After working at Quest International in Naarden, Ciba Specialty Chemicals in Basel (Switzerland) and Keygene in Wageningen, he came to work for the Consumers’ Association in The Hague, where he was responsible for the Research, and Service & Advice departments. ‘The Consumers’ Association’s product testing – like seed potatoes – must be carried out with the greatest care, because both positive and negative test results can have enormous consequences for the products of the companies’, he explains. As we have already said before above, Casteleijn started work as technical director at the NAK on 1 May, taking over from Addy Risseeuw who resigned his post at the end of last year. At all events, when working for the NAK, he wants to collaborate closely with the business sector. His main aim is to get the inspection system for seed potatoes up and running as quickly and as efficiently as possible. ‘I would like to do that in a way that has the approval of the business sector, but also that fits in with our organisation’, is how he describes his playing field in the second week of working in this position. ‘Because people in the sector can be easily approached and are all down to earth, I’m looking forward to further developing the NAK organisation.’ ● Potato World 2009 • number 3 9 Pagina 8
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