Threats as a source for decision parameters

We are surrounded by potential dangers. Storm damage, flooding, a car accident, food poisoning, corona. If you think about it for too long, you would not dare to leave your house. Fortunately, there are risk analyses. It is better to look at life around us rationally, than to let yourself be led by emotion or fear. 

Take climate change. It affects the raw materials market. Drought or heavy rainfall is already causing crop failures and scarcity. This forces up prices (if you are lucky and your ingredient is still available). There are also other consequences of the climate crisis, such as the migration crisis. Another threat. Will migration affect the availability of raw materials? Not all potential hazards, and related risks, are equally clear in relation to raw material markets.

Uncertainty and distrust may be the basis for consumers' need for information about the origin of products. More and more often, we see a reassuring photo of a farmer or farmer's wife growing and harvesting the product on a label or packaging. It is a trend that has been going on for years. Here, the rule is: closeness makes kindness. The increased trend to exclude all risks in our lives also affects the raw materials markets. Not knowing where our food comes from contributes to a feeling of insecurity or threat to our existence. Trends that are not mere hypes.

What choices do you make when choosing ingredients? Do you have a choice? By consciously dealing with crises and trends, you have extra decision parameters for your choice of ingredients. Look ahead, sense what is going on deep within society and take your time. Perhaps you can make a choice that transcends all this.

Pieter Vos
Director Nutrilab