News Agribusiness Awards
Dutch wheat winner of Agribusiness Award
Royal Koopmans is the winner of the Agribusiness Award with Nedertarwe, sustainably grown wheat from the Netherlands. The Award was presented this afternoon (4 February) during the seminar 'Insights Live' at the ABN AMRO Open 2025 tennis tournament. According to the jury, led by Aalt Dijkhuizen, Koopmans has broken the adage that you don't bake bread with Dutch grain. "Royal Koopmans proves the opposite with its Nedertarwe initiative", according to the jury report.
The Agribusiness Award is intended as an appreciation for a product, service or chain concept that, with an innovative product or new service, is able to realise benefits for Dutch farmers or horticulturists. The members of the jury of the Agribusiness Award are impressed by the innovative and connecting way in which Koopmans puts baking wheat from Dutch soil in the spotlight. "Nedertarwe shows how cooperation in the entire bread chain, from breeder, grower, collector, processor, baker, retailer to consumer, can lead to concrete results and a shared sense of pride." The jury also praises the (financial) 'plus for all parties involved'. "Royal Koopmans and all parties involved in the chain show that it is possible to excel within a specific segment of the sector, with respect for people, the environment and the product."
CEO of Royal Koopmans Dirk Lodewijk is very pleased with this appreciation. When Lodewijk started at Koopmans thirteen years ago, it was completely clear to him that in order to survive as a company it was necessary to restore the connection between city and countryside, between their company and its suppliers and also between cultivation and consumption, the CEO recently said in the studio of Boerenbusiness.
"We bought all the grain from abroad. I found that completely illogical from an economic perspective, but also from a sustainability perspective. In fact, all the wheat that was grown in the Netherlands ten years ago, no disrespect intended, went to pigs and chickens. I thought: there must be another way. Why can't we be the company that, together with growers and ultimately nature organisations, ensures that we can simply use grain from the Netherlands for the Dutch bread culture. We have developed a brand for that, and that brand is called Nedertarwe."
Other nominees
The other two nominees for the Award were ISO Horti Innovators with the High Speed Grafter and Cowmanager with the Youngstock Monitor. The jury also held these companies in high regard. Jury chairman Aalt Dijkhuizen indicated that it was, as always, difficult to choose a winner. There were 33 entries, which resulted in a top 10. "Then you come to three, all very different, and they are actually all three winners," said Dijkhuizen.
The High Speed Grafter is a fully automatic grafting machine that makes repetitive manual labor a thing of the past, but with the highest possible quality consistency. The company combines Vision AI technology and robots, making grafting about a third cheaper than manual grafting. The Youngstock Monitor enables monitoring of young cattle using AI that generates company-specific notifications. This allows diseases and improved welfare of calves and cows to be detected at an early stage. The nominees explained the entries during a pitch day where Boerenbusiness interviews were also recorded with Koopmans, Cowmanger in ISO Horti Innovators.
This is the sixth time that the Agribusiness Award has been presented. Since this year, the organization of the Award has been in the hands of ABN AMRO, with Boerenbusiness as media partner. The day was chaired by Rens de Jong. Also speaking during the seminar were Klaas Dijkhoff (co-founder of SUE & The Alchemists), Peer Swinkels (CEO of Royal Swinkels), Deborah Nas (part-time professor of Strategic Design for Technology-Based Innovation at TU Delft) and Richard Krajicek (tournament director of ABN AMRO Open).
Linda van Eekeres
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