Boerenbusiness is 10 years old this year. In the context of this anniversary we publish on Boerenbusiness various interviews with loyal Boerenbusinesssubscribers. What developments, opportunities and threats do they see? This time it is the turn of Jacco de Graaf, arable farmer from Wieringerwerf.
1. Who are you and what kind of business do you have?
"I am Jacco de Graaf, married to Marbel and we have 3 children aged 10, 9 and 7. We live in Wieringerwerf where we have an arable farm of over 90 hectares (fry potatoes, with our own seed potato cultivation, sugar beets, grains, grass seed and tulips (rented), with sustainable energy (solar and wind) and a meeting location as ancillary activities."
2. What motivated you to take out a subscription 10 years ago? Has this affected your business?
"I wanted to be able to trade in put options on the potato futures market of then Amsterdam. This was a cheap and easily accessible way of hedging the risk of free potatoes. I still think it is a shame that this option is no longer available. I was an independent party with whom I could spar about the physical market."
3. Which page of Boerenbusiness do you always open first?
"The rates."
4. What development (in the last 10 years) are you most proud of in your company?
"The meeting location set up by my wife. It started small in the old tool shed, but because it was so successful, we built a new building for it last year with several rooms, where the largest room can accommodate 150 people. Unfortunately, this activity has shut down for a few months due to the corona."
5. What hinders you most in your current business and why?"
"I think this is the regulations regarding animal manure. I would like to use more of this to further increase soil fertility, but this is not allowed. I am also extremely annoyed by rules that simply cannot be explained, such as the ban on seed coating with neonics, for example."
6. Where do you see the most opportunities for your company and why?
"The opportunities for our company are mainly in the meeting location, because it has recently been significantly enlarged, the challenge is to get the occupation as high as possible. In terms of arable farming, the focus in the coming period is to be able to work more efficiently and faster with as little possible labor to get the work done."
7. Are you an 'online' entrepreneur or do you still attach great value to information on paper?
"That's a mix of both. Online is great for information that quickly loses topicality, such as futures market prices or weather information. I only prefer to do that on paper when I want to read my trade journals."
8. Who in agriculture compliments you?
"I want to do that to Michiel van Andel, because he has been working full of energy on Twitter for years to give a response to the anti-Glyphosate lobby in particular."
9. Where will your company be in 10 years and will you still be a subscriber?
"In 10 years there is a chance that there will be a prospect of succession or not, by then I want to let the new generation think about how we should proceed. Until then, I expect the company to keep this size and only further optimize all processes. to be."
10. If I'm editor-in-chief of Boerenbusiness wash then...
"Would I make the site and the app more clear so that I immediately see only the information that is important to me and hide the rest somewhere."
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