According to a recent report from UNB, the government of Netherlands and a number of Dutch businesses will join forces to set up a “potato impact cluster” in Bangladesh.

The three-year initiative will see the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) and a consortium of Dutch businesses share knowledge and best practices with potato farmers in Bangladesh.

The project was on the agenda of discussions during the “Agriculture Sector in Bangladesh: Less from Netherlands” seminar which was organized by the Embassy of Bangladesh in The Hague. The central theme of the event was “knowledge and innovation”.

The seminar welcomed speakers such as Errol van Groenewoud, director at Omnivent Storage Solutions, Alex Vergruggen, founder of Verbruggen and Hans Griggioen, president of Eurojute. Karst Weening, policy specialist at the Dutch Potato Association moderated the event.

Talks touched on the topic of generation change in the Dutch agriculture sector, mainly in the area of technology-aided farming techniques and farm produce processing. The speakers suggested that Bangladesh could mirror the Dutch model, given that both countries have deltas and rely a lot on agriculture. According to the report the Netherlands is the world’s second largest exporter of agricultural goods after the US.

The Bangladesh Embassy in The Hague said that a total amount of almost EUR900,000 will be granted for the entire duration of the project.