Toespraak opening nieuwe palmoliefabriek op de Maasvlakte

Toespraak | 23-06-2010

Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

• It is a great delight for me to be here, and celebrate with you this very special day in the history of IOI-Group Loders Croklaan.
• I believe this new palm oil refinery plant adds to the magic of the Maasvlakte. I am sure you will agree that there is indeed a very special feel to this corner of our land. It always strikes me that coming to the Maasvlakte is like travelling to a new world. Things are different here. The horizon stretches out seemingly forever, beckoning us to think of what lies ahead. A new world in the making, a place of hope, of commitment to business and innovation, as well as quality of life.
• Today’s opening of your company’s brand new, state-of-the-art processing plant is the result of a great effort on your part. I would like to congratulate you on this achievement.
• You show us what an innovative and sustainable approach to business should be all about. Pushing boundaries, sustaining a pioneering spirit, shaping the future, that’s what you set out to do. I greatly admire you for that.
• Through your long-term investment in cutting-edge research, you have successfully developed a range of oil and fat ingredients that can contribute to a healthy and sustainable lifestyle. The products you send out into the world make a difference to the food industry and cosmetics worldwide.
• Furthermore, your production method raises efficiency, minimises environmental impact and cuts down on CO2 emissions. I admire you for that too.
• Ladies and Gentlemen, as of today, the Maasvlakte is home to the world’s largest enzymatic rearrangement facility. A unique facility, that produces segregated RSPO-certified sustainable palm oil on a large scale, consolidating IOI-Group Loders Croklaan’s position as market leader worldwide.
• I am proud that the Netherlands is host to a company like yours. I would like to make special mention of your involvement in founding the RSPO. It attests to your ambition to do business in a most responsible way.
• We need high-level international businesses to settle here in the Netherlands. And I can think of plenty of reasons for them to do so.
• The Netherlands has an excellent business climate. Our tax regime is favourable to foreign investors. We invest hundreds of millions of euros to maintain excellent infrastructural facilities and stimulate innovation wherever possible. Companies from abroad can profit from this and are doing so already on a large scale. At the moment, companies from abroad account for about 8000 business locations in the Netherlands.
• Of course, the benefits work both ways. Dutch companies profit in equal measure, as foreign companies stimulate our competitiveness, our drive for innovation. Quite simply, they make us realise that we need to keep our eye on the ball and look out for opportunities to innovate.
• The added value of foreign projects, in addition to the financial inflows, can be translated into employment, an extra boost for innovation and research, and reinforcement of the Netherlands as the ‘gateway to Europe’. Foreign investments put the Netherlands on the map, and ensure a strengthening of the Dutch economic structure.
• The Maasvlakte, of course, is a wonderful example. Companies from all over the world set up shop here. Most of them highly value  innovation. What we find here are state of the art facilities for storing and regasifying LNG, fuelling biomass power plants and, of course, as of now, processing vegetable fat and oils in a novel way. These are but three examples, there’s plenty more!
• I also find it very inspiring that companies here find new ways of working together. I know that some of your waste products are processed by your next-door-neighbour Neste Oil, which has set up a bio-diesel plant here. Your waste is their feedstock, so to say. Of course, I highly recommend such sustainable solutions.
• The Dutch economy’s global competitiveness has always been strongly linked to our enthusiasm for cross-border cooperation and our hospitality towards foreign friends.
• In the case of IOI-Loders Croklaan there is a special dimension. It is no exaggeration to say that your Dutch roots are still visible today. In the nineteenth century Crok & Laan started out as a small linseed oil producer. It developed a product called Crokvitol, a more healthy kind of margarine, which became popular in the sixties. I think it is just wonderful that you have decided to use this name to brand your newest product range of enzymatically rearranged fats. It just goes to show that we have a strong tradition of innovation to uphold.
• Loders Croklaan became part of Unilever, then joined IOI Group. I strongly believe that our international orientation can help us further build upon our business successes, to the benefit of all parties concerned.
• Today’s challenges call for such an international outlook.
• I would like to conclude by quoting your business motto: “Let’s create together!”. These words are as relevant today as they ever were. Let’s get to know one another even better and see where we can support one another in our efforts to innovate and realise a more sustainable world.
• I wish you all the very best! Thank you.