About Province of Gelderland

The Province of Gelderland and its unique agrifood innovation ecosystem

As the world rapidly urbanizes, there is increasing pressure on these urban areas to produce enough sustainable and healthy foods. Food security is crucial to economic performance and social wellbeing; solutions are needed that take into account animal welfare, food safety, waste disposal, and habitation, as well as governance, education and a fair society. In the Dutch Province of Gelderland, companies, government and research organizations are working together, providing the right facilities for creating innovations that meet these challenges and make a real difference.

Globally leading

Thanks to a strong tradition of entrepreneurship, innovation and collaboration, and perhaps surprisingly - given its small size - the Netherlands (Holland) is the world’s second largest exporter of agricultural products, and third largest of food- processing machinery. Twelve of the Top 40 food and drinks companies in the world have located their R&D centers in the Netherlands. Gelderland is independently ranked 21 (of 250) on the EU Regional Competitiveness Index, a measure of the ability of a region to offer an attractive and sustainable environment for firms and residents to live and work.

Wageningen Campus

Wageningen University & Research – established in 1918 as the first ever agricultural university - is the beating heart of a unique ecosystem that has everything needed to excel in agrifood: broad knowledge and expertise, state-of-the-art and shared research facilities, substantial research funding and support for both established companies and start-ups. Over the years, an open innovation system has emerged, in which public-private collaborations flourish. At the Wageningen campus, multinationals, sme’s and start-ups are located in the same area, working side-by-side.

Boosting innovation

The success of these initiatives continues to attract new companies, further boosting innovation. Dairy giant FrieslandCampina has a new innovation center on the campus and, in 2019, Unilever will follow by setting-up state-of-the-art facilities for global R&D. In addition, over 100 sme-sized R&D companies, such as Solynta, Keygene, Ceradis, Micreos and NIZO, are located in this region.

World Food Center

A milestone is the development of the World Food Center, in Ede, a melting-pot of consumer, scientific and business expertise and experience. In 2020 we will see the opening of this gigantic research facility, the world’s first food-science consumer-experience center.

(Research) programs, a.o.

Examples include:

Companies

The agrifood sector in the Province of Gelderland - with over 15.000 business establishments and over 79.000 jobs - is valued at 3,5 billion Euros at least.
Forty percent of companies located in the Netherlands, and working on the development of ‘green’ (sustainable), plant based proteins, are located Gelderland.