Klaas van der Horst (61) has been active as senior market editor at . since 2021 Boerenbusiness. He mainly focuses on the dairy market and dairy farming, but also focuses on the topics of nitrogen and manure policy. Klaas closely follows a number of companies on a daily basis and keeps an eye on developments.
The variety in the subjects he writes about is very appealing to Klaas. "Just watch what happens. That may seem boring at first glance, but if you look closely you always see things change."
What does a day at the editorial office look like for you?
"I scour the internet and social media in search of the latest developments. I also call people. In addition, I also have a number of things in my agenda that are going on that day or I know that something is going to take place. I keep an eye on these. There are also figures from companies that I follow, milk prices are published in the dairy industry. Every week I call traders to ask what they see changing in the market and what price developments are happening for a number of raw materials, also as an explanation of the DCA dairy quotations. Finally, I also read many reports from various clubs and institutions. All in all, I am therefore mainly engaged in exploratory research. I bundle this information together in the articles published on Boerenbusiness to appear."
What appeals to you about the work?
"I like to follow the news developments closely and then see how people and companies react to this. I try to analyze a bit what is going on. Of course you also have to approach people to ask whether this analysis is correct or you have people or companies tell you what their motivations are for doing something or not. Those are interesting processes. On the other hand, there are of course also things that are a bit more predictable. The moment it becomes a bit too predictable, I start find it a bit more boring. I like a challenge."
How do you experience the atmosphere in the workplace?
"Friendly I think. It is a well-organized team, so you know most people reasonably well within a while. I also like that there is no kind of chef culture here, so you don't have to deal with all kinds of unnecessary obstacles. team is a nice mix of somewhat older and somewhat young people.Journalists are often stubborn, so they are not so quick to ask each other.I have therefore been appointed a bit so that I can help (junior) colleagues by, for example, telling something about the background of certain subjects, so the collaboration is also going well."
What are important qualities for working in the editorial office?
"I think mainly functional curiosity. In my view, that is more important than a specific education. The curiosity must be such that you want to make the subject your own. That you not only think about what is happening today and what might happen tomorrow, but that you are also professionally curious. Of course it is also important that you enjoy writing something. You have to be aware of the subject you are going to write about, because otherwise you will keep scraping the surface every time and that is not nice."
Do you have experience in the agricultural sector?
"I am a farmer's son, so in that sense I do have the general agricultural knowledge. I also have no agricultural training and that is certainly not essential for a job at this company. If you just want to deepen your knowledge, you will be fine. . Boerenbusiness is a business company. We try to stay on top of developments and that is also good and important. Being one of the first is one thing, but you also have to want to do better than the others. You want to provide more content, which is just as important in the longer term. We try that at Boerenbusiness sure to come true. The atmosphere is positive and colleagues really want to go for it together. Boerenbusiness has more data in house than you might suspect at first glance!"