During a recent seminar, Director Hans van Luijk of Dutch growers cooperation Van Nature gave his views on the survival of Growers Associations. His conclusion was that producer organizations / cooperatives will continue to exist. "They have been around for 126 years and fulfill a need. However, there will be a further consolidation, and associations dependent on CAP will disappear."
Van Luijk explained the transformation of Growers Associations to marketing organizations, where they were given additional functions such as sales, quality control, marketing, purchasing and marketing-enhancing investments in the chain. "This development was stimulated by the European CAP scheme, bringing the total to 15 CAP-recognized producer associations." According to the chairman of Van Nature, there is a clear difference in origin between producer organizations that have come together because of CAP and existing marketing associations that arranged sales, marketing and logistics for their growers. "The CAP conditions have become more stringent in the course of time. You should therefore carefully consider what you want to use and whether it does not interfere in achieving your goal. CAP regulation will eventually disappear. The remaining producer organizations will become larger, more professional and more market-oriented."
“At Van Nature we try to offer more than just CAP;” says Hans. “Through quality, but also through joint purchasing, something that really paid off in recent years. We introduce quality standards for each product, which are often more stringent than the applicable standards.”
Van Nature sells its products to four partners - Haluco, Scherpenhuizen, Levarht and Combilo - achieving a closed chain to the end customer. "For the future, I foresee the trading companies getting an increasingly smaller role as intermediaries. The added value of these companies will likely be in the knowledge of market, customer and product."