Dutch PM: Let’s join forces
Mark Rutte wants farmers from his country and ours to innovate on climate
Dutch and Kiwi farmers must innovate together, says Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte. He announced a joint co-operation statement on climate change with New Zealand which sets out partnerships between universities, regulators and research organisations.
“The farming sector understands that to have a licence to operate in our society and to have a forwardlooking future we need to innovate so we can have a strong agricultural sector in 20, 50 and 100 years in both countries, and we discussed this at length in our talks,” Rutte said.
Despite being geographically compact, the Netherlands is the world’s second-biggest agri-food exporter, behind the United States.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the pair talked at length about solutions to methane gas reduction.
“My message to the agriculture community is that methane represents about 50 per cent of our emissions profile, unlike most of our OECD counterparts, and we need to act,” Ardern said.
She added that, as part of New Zealand’s free trade agreement talks with the European Union, it was trying to demonstrate sustainable food production.
She said getting a quality trade deal with the EU over the line would “send a strong message about rules-based systems in turbulent times”.
Industry and research consortium Netherlands’ Food Valley has also partnered with New Zealand’s Food HQ in a move that will see several joint initiatives, the first being a focus on sustainable protein-rich foods.
Food HQ’s business development manager, Amos Palfreyman, will be based at Food Valley for three months as part of the exchange of ideas.
The Ministry for Primary Industries will also “enhance [its] existing relationship” with its Dutch counterpart, the statement sets out.
The Netherlands is the sixthlargest economy in the European Union, exporting €65 billion worth of vegetables, fruit, flowers, meat and dairy products each year.
The two nations are both members of the Carbon Neutrality Coalition, which commits them to submitting long-term strategies that ensure the global temperature increase is limited to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.