Saskia Goetgeluk new board member of Greenports Netherlands

Saskia Goetgeluk has been the director-director of the Brightlands Campus Greenport Venlo since 2017. Since December, she has been part of the executive board of Greenports Netherlands. In an interview with this national organization, she talks about her background and involvement in horticulture.

How did you end up in horticulture?

"My first job (1986) in horticulture started while I was studying journalism, at the trade magazines in the ornamental horticulture sector. I did this work for more than ten years, and the themes I wrote about were of a more general nature, such as the promotion of interests, collective bargaining, the increasing scale of operations and the management changes this entailed, labour market problems and the increasing attention paid to the environment. From that time started the building of my network, because as a journalist you got around, which I still enjoy a lot.

After this period of journalism I became communications manager at FloraHolland, and for almost ten years I worked on all the mergers, collaborations and integrations. From that period I learned especially how effective communication creates support for far-reaching decisions. In the same function, I started in 2004 with what was then Greenport Nederland. Greenports Nederland (government and industry together) became Greenport Holland (industry only) in 2010. When the top sector policy was introduced in 2011, I started as secretary/manager of the Horticulture & Starting Materials Top Team. I continued with that until I transferred to Brightlands in 2017 as director to build up the Campus."

Which themes of the Horticultural Agreement do you yourself, in the course of your work, have a lot to do with?"

"The themes of Innovation and Healthy People and then focusing on food and health, sustainability and agri high-tech. This is quite broad. It can range from innovations for the nitrogen problem to the question of how you can influence behavior in the youngest youth to eat healthily. Within the issue of innovation and market, I personally find the connection between agriculture and horticulture (fresh produce) and the food processing industry interesting. This connection does not happen automatically, while there is a need to make that bridge. It is precisely from the perspective of ingredients that we can work together incredibly well, from the perspective of healthy food but also from the perspective of the residual flow issue. In that light, I regard the Brightlands in Venlo as a 'content material' campus with its three themes. And, secondly, the connection with the consumer, I also find interesting. Not for nothing do we see a growing, concrete innovation interest from the primary and breeding sectors towards consumers. Students are also very interested in new food concepts, from their intrinsic motivation."

Since December you are part of the executive board of Greenports Netherlands. Why did you want to take on this position?

"Mainly to bring entrepreneurs in the best position from a joint responsibility from Education / Research and Government. I would also like to give more attention to the regional strengths. In Venlo, for example, we are looking for connections with the other Greenports, but also with the parties in the EU region (Germany and Belgium). As a director you can operate quite hands-on, and given my entire career, I would like to make my contribution to that strengthening."

How do you see the position of Dutch horticulture in the international force field in 5 years? And what are the biggest challenges according to you?

"Biggest challenges remain, almost classically, maintaining competitive position, retaining sufficient critical mass and retaining innovative strength. However, the transition to the validation of our added value, namely that we are 'selling health and that's worth something', does not seem to me to be a done deal. Healthy nutrition prevents a lot of healthcare costs and should therefore be and remain high on the agenda of managers."

Source: Greenports Netherlands