Looking at a world map, one would hardly guess that a relatively small State like the Netherlands is the second largest agricultural exporter in the world, behind only the US. But this fact is indeed as much shocking as true: in 2018, the Netherlands shipped out €90.3 billion in goods, compared to the US’s €125,9 billion. To grasp the exceptionality of this data, just consider that all that food was produced on 41,500 km2 territory, compared to the 9.8 million km2 of US total area. To put it in proportional terms, think that the Netherlands made 72% of the total US agricultural export gains with a total growing area amounting to less than 0,5% of US’s! 

ImpactCity – The Hague’s startup and scale-up community – put out an article dealing with innovation and expertise in the Dutch AgriFood industry, and showing how the Netherlands has secured that said output level by prioritizing extreme resource efficiency and championing technology that can enable it. Although the Netherlands excels at exporting its sustainable agriculture expertise globally, it is also a very attractive Country for international talents. In particular, early-stage startups are either starting to open subsidiary offices or to establish a more or less continuative presence in the Netherlands because of resources and expertise availability. Also, the Netherlands as an international financial hub is investing quite a lot on young, innovative AgriFood startups.

ImpactCity’s piece mentioned Wenda’s work within the framework of the Rockstart Agrifood program while talking to Mark Durno, Managing Partner at the Amsterdam-based startup accelerator. For Wenda, this article by an international web magazine focused on change-driving startups is an appreciated indication of the results of our commitment in boosting brand internationalization and building cross-border relationships and business opportunities. With the awareness that there is still much work to do, but also with the willingness to roll up our sleeves.

As Mark Durno told ImpactCity: “There’s a lot happening to support startups that are here, but the Netherlands hasn’t really nailed it in terms of attracting international startups, The agtech ecosystem is very regionally and nationally focused. We want to activate international startups and give them access to the huge amount of private investment, research and development, academic institutions and corporate heavyweights in the Netherlands and Denmark. The Netherlands is in a prime position to be a global leader in agrifood, It already is, at the scale-up and corporate phase. Now it just needs to unlock international potential and take a leading role at the startup level as well”.