PW CONFERENCE Guido Thijs knows exactly how to make his Audience face the facts. ‘IF YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE ANY SLEEP OVER, YOU’LL QUICKLY FALL ASLEEP’ ‘Nothing is as permanent as something temporary.’ With this wise comment, Guido Thijs opened his look at the present economic crisis in the world like a cabaret performer. He calls himself company-accoucheur and he knows exactly how to make his Audience face the facts. ‘You want me to be brief, mister chairman: the potato sector has no future, so good luck and thank you for your attention’, joked Thijs. But continued immediately with the statement that ‘nothing can be predicted with any certainty’. For example, who could have predicted that the Netherlands is now the only country in the world without a single post office? In the same vein, the company-accoucheur expressed many more such statements. But don’t think that he doesn’t have a message. The will to win and look ahead are the basic principles for permanent entrepreneurship. An example: the entire automobile branch has had it. The Toyota Prius is the only car there is a rush on. Is that a coincidence? No, this is focus, a visionary way of thinking! The problem is that many entrepreneurs get lazy during the fat years. ‘If you have nothing to lose any sleep over, you’ll fall asleep very quickly. When you ask entrepreneurs about the value of their products, whether their commodity is any good, 80 percent say: yes. If you ask the customers the same question, only 8 percent whole-heartedly say: yes. So, according to Thijs, the advice for the entrepreneurs is that they should put themselves in the place of the customer. What is the customer doing, what is his soft spot? Are you selling anything about which the customer says, wow, I want that! Thijs worked with the example of a box, around which you can put other boxes: boxes + and boxes ++. This is about things like quality, convenience, appearance and service. ‘Thinking out of the box’ is the term Thijs mentioned in this context. shows ‘full utilisation of the organic potential’, the second ‘clever use of unique circumstances’, the third ‘no losses in the agro food web’ and the fourth leaf ‘discover new alliances’. The clever thing to do now is to use these four guidelines to achieve high scores for the potato. According to Huirne, it is then important to know the current food trends that reflect the focus of consumer advertising today. He regards overweight as one of the most important ones ‘The potato contains fewer calories per 100 grams that is where our opportunities lie.’ Moreover, there is increasing segmentation into age categories and subsequent life-style preferences. If we think of children, ‘preventive medicine is very important’. In the adolescent category, vitality is what it’s all about, and for the more mature adults it involves remaining healthy for as long as you can. Another upcoming trend is that of functional food. Think of Becel margarine, which has not quite achieved the medicine status. ‘Good for your heart and your blood vessels’, and recommended by the Dutch Heart Foundation. The potato contains so many healthy food elements that the ‘functional food’ status must be achievable, but the sector will need to tell the consumer this in no uncertain terms. ‘It is now up to you to take up the challenge and show the consumer how important potatoes really are and what you can do with them’, added the professor in an appeal to the Audience. Differences in one annual income At LEI, we are often reproached that the figures we publish always paint a picture of a bankrupt agricultural sector. The sector is hardly ever making a profit. And that is how it is. On average, many farmers grow their products below cost price. But the differences among the operating incomes are great’, confirms Huirne. ‘I have seen that the difference between comparable farms can be as much as one annual income, which means that we can easily say that many businesses have still room for improvement. When it involves making a difference in the market, for example.’ Huirne pleaded for more heterogeneity of the potato as a product, but also for entrepreneurship. There is still room for a great deal of improvement for many growers, traders and the processing industry. Show enthusiasm and inspiration, innovate, look in the mirror and at the outside world and make choices. Do not waste energy on the general conspiracy. With the latter, Huirne means the doom scenarios that come up every now and again such as ‘there are far too many potatoes’ or ‘supermarkets are taking all the profits’. Potato World 2010 • number 1 13 Pagina 12
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