Study Tour Indonesian cooperatives to The Netherlands

25-10-2017

From 22 to 28 October, a group of 12 representatives of 6 Indonesian cooperatives supported by Agriterra, and 2 representatives of the Indonesian Ministry of Cooperatives visit The Netherlands to learn more about cooperative development and changes in our country.

The central theme for this study tour is “change”. Sometimes, cooperatives think they are at the end of their development and no more work has to be done. We want to learn our Indonesian clients that a cooperative can never stop changing and adapting to changing environment, a changing market, new rules etc.

Many leading and well known cooperatives (and Agripoolers!) have pledged to contribute to this study tour; like Cosun, CSV Covas, Agrico, Nautilus, Vitelia, FloraHolland and The Greenery.

Day 1:

Yesterday, we had the kick-off of the program for the study tour visitors from Indonesia. We decided to do this in Arnhem in the nice environment of the Open Air Museum. The official opening and welcome on behalf of Agriterra was done by Cees van Rij, who inspired the participants on three topics: ambition, change and collaboration.

Next was a Workshop Change Management conducted by Margreet Oostenbrink, one of our Agripoolers, chairperson of Vrouwen van Nu and chairperson of the supervisory board of Fair Trade Original. Main message: leadership is mastering the change!

And to learn a bit more about the (agricultural) history of The Netherlands, we concluded with a guided tour in the museum, including the visit to an old cooperative dairy factory. The participants are looking forward to the next 4 days of learning!

Day 2:

The second day of our Study Tour for Indonesian cooperatives started in Dinteloord, at the head office of Suiker Unie (part of Cooperative Royal Cosun) where we learned about the membership, structure and challenges of Cosun.

After a very nice tour in the sugar factory (where the processing of sugar beets was in full process) we moved to the brand new Cosun Innovation Center, which was only opened a few weeks ago. In the afternoon, Agripool expert Gerard Gosselink conducted two presentations: about internal capitalisation and about the take-over of the activities about ‘his’ cooperative CSV Covas by Cosun.

Another interesting day full of learnings for our 14 participants from Indonesia… As they say at Cosun: “the beet goes on”! And so is our study tour…

Richard van der Maden
​business advisor Agriterra