Introduction To 13th Congress

It is my pleasure to bid you a warm welcome to this six-day IFMA conference. Your itinerary in the coming days will carry the theme of ‘Feed the world, Please the consumer and Maintain the environment’. In my introduction I will elaborate on these three notions. My illustrations will guide you through the developments at a global level, via the EU policy and the national developments in the Netherlands, to the grass roots and daily practice of agricultural traders in the Netherlands. First of all, I would like to mention a few developments in outline. As you probably know, last year in November the agenda was drawn up in Qatar concerning a new round of negotiations in the context of the World Trade Organization, WTO. Key elements in this respect for agriculture and horticulture are the continuing process of liberalization and, in conjuction with this, the removal of trade barriers and tariff walls, as well as the phasing out of export subsidies.