What is going wrong at LTO Netherlands?

At LTO Nederland I sometimes have the feeling that we are watching the movie 'Titanic'; once the proud mothership that defended the farmer's interests with verve, but now looks like a bobbing boat with no clear course. It is a pity that precisely in this period, when the 'license-to-produce' of agriculture is under discussion, the ranks have not been closed and that the agricultural sector no longer speaks with one voice.

How did it get this far? Firstly, we see that the interests of the various sectors are increasingly intersecting, leading to a kind of compromise policy. This is actually an unlikely route in advance, because no one is happy with it. For one sector too little is achieved, for another sector too much.

Cohesion between farmers is also weakening due to the growing disparities in the shrinking membership of the the agricultural and horticultural organisation† Take, for example, a 70-year-old dairy farmer with 50 cows and a 30-year-old farmer with 300 hectares. They hardly have any common ground with each other, so that they too recognize themselves less and less in the representative.

Less burping on the plush
In addition, there are fewer and fewer farmers on the plush in national politics; Whereas the alderman used to be a farmer in every village, there are now too few farmers in local, provincial or national politics. Letting go of an elected director within LTO Nederland is also a major change. These are today professional administrators, who apparently do not sense what is going on among the members or do not speak their language. This has resulted in much less support for the incumbent directors.

However, these problems are not insurmountable. In fact, all of the above together is a communication problem. LTO Nederland does not know how to properly explain what it is doing and the organization cannot clearly prove what it has achieved for the members† But, what is particularly striking: LTO Nederland cannot deal with criticism and therefore abandons all communication rules.

This led to a discussion about the number of members of LTO Nederland, which was frequently conducted online. And what did the interest group do? She was silent in all languages ​​and could not be reached for comment. This while the discussion could be silenced with a simple response and making a strong statement.

Communication problems
Another example is the debate about the calf mortality in the Netherlands, which was launched on Monday 1 April. While the discussion is raging in full intensity on radio, TV and other public media, there was no text and explanation about the theme on the LTO Nederland website (yet) halfway through the day.

Another example: in recent years there has been a great demand for a good initiative for 'farmer-citizen communication'. Quite a few initiatives have been developed in this regard; separate from LTO Nederland, because it neglected that assignment. Many of the initiators are at LTO Nederland visiting (at their request) to talk about their activities and how the agricultural and horticultural organization can help. Subsequently, LTO Nederland decides to start its own initiative, separate from all other existing initiatives.

After an extensive (and expensive) investigation, LTO Nederland came up with the 'onzeboeren.nl' campaign, in which it copied other initiators. However, after several editions of several hundred thousand euros, we never heard anything about it again. The main reason for this is that the initiative did not come from the farmer, but from a concept conceived in an office. This is in line with the research on the appreciation for LTO Nederland that was recently published. The interest group scored a serious unsatisfactory in this respect. That is serious and worrying at the same time.

Solutions in communication
How do you solve the results of that research in terms of communication technology? You take the initiative and communicate that you are (very) shocked by the outcome and that you will conduct an in-depth internal investigation into the source of this dissatisfaction (to name just one example of classic crisis management). However, LTO Nederland believes it should do this differently.

The chairman could not be reached for comment (where have I heard that before) and the final response was: "LTO Nederland also regularly conducts satisfaction surveys among its supporters. Based on this, we can conclude that the members are more positive than the customers and readers of research bureau Geelen and the messenger Agrio."

This is, as far as I'm concerned, a massive communication blunder. Lesson 1: Never take down the messenger, because that shows your own weakness. That is exactly what is happening. It is also striking that the chairman gives many major interviews to the national media (such as the Financieele Dagblad and NRC). They are newspapers that their members most likely do not read. On the other hand, an interview in Nieuwe Oogst is only read by their own supporters, while you also want to reach the critical non-members for support.

If LTO Nederland still wants to have a future and maintain its raison d'être, I would first invest in a good communication policy; with a farmer's heart and excellent feelers to keep an eye on developments in society. Today, both members and (former) non-members no longer recognize themselves in the organization.

Keith Maas

Kees Maas is director of the DCA Group. He has more than 25 years of experience in commodities trading, both on the stock exchanges and in the physical market. Maas is a specialist in price risk management and a much sought-after sparring partner for food companies for their sales and purchasing strategy.

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