PHOTO: HERBERT WIGGERMAN
BY VINCENT TER BEEK, EDITOR, PIG PROGRESS W
ith loads of international experience, Saskia Korink returned to the Netherlands in 2018. The Covid-19 pandemic had just started when she was invited to be the next CEO of Trouw Nutrition, which is
headquartered in the Netherlands.
What was your mission when you took over from Harm de Wildt, who retired as CEO? “Firstly, my mission is to make sure we have a clear strategy, and that we have a global organisation that works together smoothly. “More specifically, I asked how I could navigate the company through the Covid-19 crisis, the severity of which was becoming clearer by the day at that time. In the Netherlands, it started in March, and in May I was asked whether I would be interested in the role of CEO. At that time, things were going relatively well; consumers started buying more, so our business was thriving. When I finally started in August, the world had changed and it was not clear where things would be heading.”
And there hasn’t really been a normal month again since “For sure. I started in the middle of a time when everyone was working from home. So what I wanted was to show myself as the new CEO. Under normal conditions I would have visited all the teams and been visible. And that just wasn’t possible – only re- mote contact via the laptop was possible. In addition, I have had quite a lot of transitions within my own leadership team. So there were a lot of new people in my team with whom I wanted to build a close relationship, and that was not possible using Zoom or Teams. I found that very difficult.”
Did Trouw Nutrition feel the Covid-19 crisis? “It certainly wasn’t business as usual. Our sales people were no longer able to visit customers. The ongoing business and orders – they could be dealt with using the phone or the web. But things are different when you’re trying to sell something new – or just want to get to know customers better… That type of meeting just didn’t happen anymore. “In our production plants we had difficulties, obviously. People couldn’t attend work for a while, and extra investments were needed so everyone could be at work safely, making sure that we didn’t infect one another.”
You spent over ten years in Brazil, your husband is Brazil- ian and you speak Portuguese fluently. How has that contributed to your career? “It always has an enormous impact when you spend some time abroad. I used to be a typical Dutch girl, that is, very straightfor- ward. Ending up very deeply in Brazil’s culture has changed me. I grew to become a much warmer person. It also has an impact on your personality when taking a deep dive into a totally different
culture. That applies to the whole of Latin America. And lessons you learn in an emerging market can be applied again in other regions, in Asia or Africa for example.”
What is the Trouw Nutrition strategy with regard to China? “China is still in full swing trying to rebuild its pork industry after [African Swine Fever] ASF hit in 2018. We are seeing a giant recov- ery of their pork output. They are also building very large produc- tion systems. That is extremely interesting for us to do business with. We expect this growth to continue; obviously their aim is to become entirely self-sufficient. “One other interesting direction is that of antibiotic reduction (AMR), both in feed as well as in pig production itself. For AMR we have all kinds of solutions, so at Nutreco we see further develop- ment of AMR solution as a strategic priority as well as to be able to help our customers in China.”
Sustainability is an important theme within Trouw Nutri- tion. How will that become visible in the years to come? “Sustainability is part of everything we do. It starts at the sourcing side. We have been working hard to gather the most sustainable ingredients. If we source soy from South America, we make sure that it is not related to deforestation. Our goal is to be able to get to 100% deforestation-free ingredients in the next few years. For that reason, we are also working on traceability. “In addition, we are also looking for alternative ingredients – to be able to complement our portfolio of potential proteins and other ingredients. “Sustainability, however, also plays an enormous role at the farm. We have always been busy supporting our customers to produce as efficiently and sustainably as possible. That is all related to keeping animals healthy and maintaining productivity levels as high as possible. In doing so, we create more output with a lower level of input.”
Is sustainability something customers ask for? Or is it something the company chooses to pursue? “On the issue of deforestation, we have told one another that we think it is important that Trouw Nutrition is not associated with deforestation. “In general – in some countries sustainability is starting to be- come more of an issue than in others. That will lead to more ex- plicit questions. When the pressure grows, customers will demand more. We feel this is our duty, irrespective of that pressure. If our mission is ‘Feeding the Future’, then it’s clear that sustainability is in everything we do.”
Is it possible to work sustainably and stay competitive at the same time? “The nice thing about sustainability is that you can produce more efficiently, and that means you can produce animal protein at lower cost. So sustainability and economic advantage often go
▶ DAIRY GLOBAL | Volume 9, No. 2, 2022 13
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36
