Background Board composition
Does agribusiness already meet the women's quota?
The agricultural sector has traditionally been a man's world, where women are in the minority. What about the top of large Dutch agricultural companies? Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven (Education, Culture and Science) says Friday 8 March (International Women's Day) that she is done with the fact that there are so few women in the top of the business community.
Van Engelshoven demands that at least 30% of the board of directors be women. That is not the case now and that is why she is considering a 'women's quota'. A round of calls to ForFarmers, FrieslandCampina and Vion shows that the agricultural sector in the Netherlands sometimes already meets the minister's ideal, and sometimes it still does not.
No woman at ForFarmers
Caroline Vogelzang, spokesperson at animal feed company ForFarmers, agrees that the agricultural sector is mainly a man's world. There is therefore not a single woman in the 9-person board of the listed company. Vogelzang does say that there are more and more women on the work floor of the animal feed company. Nevertheless, they are still far in the minority; last year, no less than 82% of employees were male. One of the six members of the Supervisory Board of ForFarmers is a woman.
"We therefore still have some catching up to do to meet the minister's wishes," says Vogelzang. The spokesperson said that when appointing new board members, it is not the aim to appoint women. "We look at all profile requirements and then you often end up with a man in the animal feed sector."
Vion: 'Not a priority yet'
Meat concern Vion has a board of 7 members, which also consists entirely of men. As with ForFarmers, the Supervisory Board has at least 1 woman. Nancy Aschman, the spokesperson for Vion, reports that naming women at the top has not been a priority in recent years. "We have been particularly busy to put Vion back on the map."
- Nancy Ashman (Vion)
The spokesperson says that the subject is discussed in the boardroom every now and then. "It is a logical follow-up that we are working on the minister's objective, although we are not yet pursuing an active policy on it." According to Aschman, regardless of the male/female ratio, Vion aims for a good composition within the board; age and nationality also play an important role.
Aschman says that there are many women in the workplace at Vion, but men also clearly have the upper hand in the middle layer of the company.
FrieslandCampina more than meets the requirements
At FrieslandCampina, women are at the top. Jaska de Bakker has been CFO of the dairy cooperative for several years now. FrieslandCampina has a 2-person board (Executive board), with Hein Schumacher as CEO. This means that FrieslandCampina more than meets the wishes of Minister Van Engelshoven.
The Executive Leadership Team is under the management. There, 3 out of 8 directors are women. That is above the target set by the Rutte III cabinet. Sjoerd van Sprang, FrieslandCampina's spokesperson, says that the company considers it important to have a good balance between men and women; also in the workplace. According to Van Sprang, FrieslandCampina can still improve there.
Women too at Cosun
Women also work at the top at Cosun, but they are in the minority. There are 9 women in the 2-person board. This means that Cosun is still below the 30% target. It is not clear whether the subject also has priority. This was because the spokesperson could not be reached for comment this morning.
Wouter Job
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