Agricultural entrepreneurs do well in Quote 500

The top 100 of most wealthy agricultural entrepreneurs in the Quote 500 can be called fairly stable. The shifts mainly take place in the regions below, which include some newcomers. Remarkable: the French fries makers did well in 2017.

We always find Wijnand Pon at the top of this one agricultural list, which is distilled from the list of 500 richest Dutch people. He maintains his tenth place. The assets grew by a mere €100 million to €1,9 billion. The dairy farms and semen trade of Pon, who prefer to stay in the Groningen countryside, played a large part in this.

The Fentener-Van Vlissingen family, owner of SVH (Nutreco) can be found in the following 6 positions with assets ranging from €765 to €475 million. As a result, they all see their wealth increase.

French fries production delivers returns
The potato processors also baked some in 2017. Kees Meijer, Piet de Bruijne and Gerard Kroef all move slightly. De Bruijne (Farm Frites) and Kroef (Peka Kroef) in particular are doing very well, with a high net profit in 2017. Low potato prices and high demand have benefited the entrepreneurs.

Machine producer Jeroen Zuidberg narrowly made the list last year (place 499). This year he has been removed from the list and we find Eddie Perdok of parts giant Kramp Groep as newcomer. He has an estimated net worth of €145 million, which puts him in 281st place. Above him in the mechanization world is only Andries Verder, in place 199, with €195 million. We also include him in the list for the first time.

Also new are Peter and Paul Koppert, in position 484. Their company is known for biological crop protection and that attracted the attention of the Quote editors. The net worth is estimated at €82 million.

Family businesses top 50
In the family businesses, numbers 1 (De Heus) and 2 (Van Drie) both move up one spot. The Rider also moves by 1 place, but then downwards. We can no longer find meat trader Zandbergen in the list. Van Ballegooijen is now the last in this top 50 with their dairy group.

Update November 6, 2018:
The day after the announcement of the list, Quote has more news. Van Herk Investments of Rotterdam, owned by billionaire Aat van Herk, takes over the crop protection products business ceradis about. For an amount of €10,2 million, the investment company Ceradis acquires from Value8† With an estimated wealth of €1,4 billion, Van Herk is number 19 in the Quote 500. In the agricultural ranking he comes in at number 2, after Wijnand Pon.

Ceradis develops/produces crop protection products and liquid fertilizers. It has been working together with fellow manufacturer Adama for this since 2017. Ceradis is located in Wageningen and is collaborating there with WUR for the development.

Niels van der Boom

Niels van der Boom is a senior market specialist for arable crops at DCA Market Intelligence. He mainly makes analyses and market updates about the potato market. In columns he shares his sharp view on the arable sector and technology.

n.vanderboom@boerenbusiness. Nl

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