27 September 2022 - Working with customers across the whole value chain and aiming for sustainability along the way were cited as key issues for Fulco van Lede, the CEO of Nutreco, in his chat with Feedinfo’s managing director Julien Hardwick at the Feedinfo Summit on Monday.
Asked about the future vision for the company, van Lede highlighted the importance of a sustainable system.
“Feed additives are playing a big role [in our business]. We are shifting more of that towards additives as they are more able to solve sustainability issues,” said van Lede.
He also talked about the corporate venture arm of the company, investing in new technology start-ups as a potential future for Nutreco’s business. He noted that moving towards more sustainable practices wasn’t going to happen overnight, but solutions would come from new technologies.
Van Lede added that Nutreco’s goal was not to produce more food but to produce enough food, stressing the need to reduce waste at all levels of the production system.
Threats to the industry
Asked to identify the biggest threats to the industry, van Lede cited climate change. He noted that the river system in Europe, key for shipping agricultural goods, is “increasingly difficult to manage,” and pointed out that natural disasters such as drought or heavy rainfall can destroy harvests. Meanwhile, he believes climate change will likely drive further regulation, be it on fossil fuels or in other areas.
Next, van Lede spoke about the importance of geopolitics and the risk of concentrating production in one place.
“There is high concentration of key suppliers in China. If something happens in China, the industry has a problem. Diversifying the supply chain is key thing, geopolitics [need to be taken] into consideration,” he said.
Asked about the decline in livestock numbers in Europe and its impact on corporate strategy, van Lede said that a decline in itself wasn’t necessary a bad thing, but that it required planning to work out how to position a company in such market conditions.
And how were customers reacting to inevitable price increases?
“It’s different this time. Everybody understands there is inflation, and it affects everyone… the affordability of the basics such as food, as well as simply availability [of it] … in my view, we have not seen the worst yet – labour costs will come next year. This is one of the key short-term challenges… at least I hope it’s short-term, [lasting] a year or maybe year and a half. Sustainability will remain a key driver behind all that,” acknowledged van Lede.
