Protein transition allows companies to flourish

Helping entrepreneurs to increase their national and international impact on the road to a future-proof protein system. That is the idea behind a joint initiative of the provinces of Gelderland, Overijssel, Zeeland, Noord-Brabant and Flevoland within The Protein Cluster. "This will enable entrepreneurs to realise their ambitions for sustainable protein better and faster," says Jeroen Willemsen, innovation manager at Foodvalley NL. The collaboration will officially start on 13 October 2020 during the Foodvalley Summits.

Entrepreneurs who want to respond to the rapidly growing market for vegetable proteins have been receiving support from various provinces and Regional Development Agencies (ROMs) for a number of years. This cooperation will only increase this support even further. The Protein Cluster (www.theproteincluster.com), 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 are also joining The Protein Cluster, many more businesses can count on active support.

Cooperation across provincial borders

"We bring together entrepreneurs from different provinces with complementary ambitions, networks, products and facilities. And we guide them in the development of 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 cooperation is therefore a nice, new step in the development of the protein transition ecosystem that we have in mind".

foodvalley.nl