“This will enable entrepreneurs to realize their ambitions for sustainable protein better and faster,” says Jeroen Willemsen, innovation manager at Foodvalley NL. The collaboration will officially start on October 13, 2020 during the Foodvalley Summits.
Entrepreneurs who want to respond to the fast-growing vegetable protein market have benefited for a number of years from various provinces and Regional Development Companies (ROMs). This collaboration will only get bigger. The Protein Cluster, the business network that the provinces of Gelderland and Overijssel started in 2017 together with Oost NL and Foodvalley NL, already has 65 members. Now that Zeeland, Noord-Brabant and Flevoland have also joined The Protein Cluster, many more companies can count on active support.
Cooperation
“We bring together entrepreneurs from different provinces with complementary ambitions, networks, products and facilities. And we guide them in developing a business model. Growers, processors and end suppliers, for example, and producers and food designers, ”Willemsen illustrates. “The protein transition does not stop at the border of a province or a country. This collaboration is therefore a great new step in the development of the protein transition ecosystem that we have in mind.”
Grow faster
Companies can grow faster with an interprovincial approach. Mark Laponder of Evolution Meats knows this better than anyone. The entrepreneur develops and produces 100% vegetable products with the taste and bite of meat. “As an entrepreneur I look beyond the boundaries of my own province, Gelderland. Some of our raw materials come from Zeeland, for example, and the storage and distribution of our products is provided from our production location in Limburg. If these partners receive support from their own provinces, we will also benefit from this. ”
Promotion abroad
Protein transition across provincial borders also helps promote Dutch plant protein products, technologies and services abroad. Laponder: “We join forces through The Protein Cluster to give companies a global stage together. How great would it be if we could present ourselves together at a global event such as the Floriade 2022 in Almere and major food fairs in Germany and France?
Connect with the next generation of protein game changers from Europe, Asia and Oceania. Be inspired by new, intercontinental collaborations in the sharing of knowledge, products and ingredients about plant proteins. Experience who will be the winner of the Foodvalley Champions Protein Shift 2020. Take part in the Foodvalley Summits Protein Shift & Food & Health, 13 October 2020.
Image: Epitavi/Shutterstock
