'Almost half of the objections are well-founded'

The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO.nl) has so far upheld 46% of the objections handled, regarding phosphate rights. This was reported by RVO.nl on Thursday 22 November during the technical briefing on the phosphate system in the House of Representatives.

RVO.nl received a total of 7.746 objections, of which 4.383 have been settled to date. Most of the objections from the dairy farms appear to be justified because the amount of milk supplied was different than expected. "The assignment of the right-wing took place on the basis of the information available from RVO.nl. When submitting an objection, the entrepreneur is given the opportunity to provide new information," said René van der Burg, director of Core Processes and Customer Contact at RVO.nl.

In addition, Van der Burg also states that RVO.nl cannot guarantee that all dairy farmers will have clarity before 1 January 2019 about the number of phosphate rights that they will be allocated. It appears that more time is needed to deal with the objections. "The judge's ruling that more attention must be paid to individual situations plays a role," said the director.

Why is there a lack of clarity?
During the briefing, the full Agriculture Committee was present to hear why many farmers still do not have any secure is about the number of allocated phosphate rights. According to Van der Burg, this was partly due to the fact that the rules had changed in the meantime. "The employees were touched by the stories of the farmers they had on the phone."

According to Van der Burg, his organization had to balance between the individual interests of those farmers and the collective interest of the sector. "That requires careful treatment and that takes time." 

'Number of objections underestimated'
In addition to the above, he also indicated that the number of objections has been underestimated. RVO.nl states that it has received almost 20.000 e-mails and telephone calls before the phosphate reduction. "The department has made about 90.000 decisions." The organization indicated that it expected 3.000 objections (based on discussions with Zuivel.nl and the NZO) and 200 appeal procedures were also expected. "In the end, this became 4 times as many."

To overcome the above when issuing phosphate rights, RVO.nl chose to send 25.000 views. It contained the information that the organization had from the receiving company. If that information was incomplete or incorrect, the company could respond with more information. "We expected 6.000 responses, but that turned out to be more than 13.000. And instead of the expected 1.000 objections, almost 8.000 were received," explains Van der Burg.

'We can't go faster'
RVO.nl after repeated urging from the MPs, has therefore announced that 46% of the objections have been declared well-founded. "The care that RVO.nl strives for has therefore not prevented mistakes from being made." Van der Burg could not say how many extra phosphate rights had been awarded in connection with those objections. "Now, 6 weeks before the end of the year, 3.363 objections are still outstanding."

Finally, Van der Burg indicates that RVO.nl cannot work any faster. "More speed will hurt the rigor of the decisions." Van der Burg suggests that dairy farmers seeking certainty should make decisions based on the latest decision they have received.

Kimberly Baker

Kimberly Bakker is an all-round editor at Boerenbusiness. She also has an eye for the social media channels of Boerenbusiness.

k.baker @boerenbusiness. Nl

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