An introductory conversation with NAO’s Executive Director

Could you introduce yourself, your background, and how you came to work at NAO?

Hi! I’m Janine Luten, executive director of NAO, the Dutch Potato Association, since the 1st of July this year. I’ve studied Plant Sciences in Wageningen and agri-food has been a bit of a red thread throughout my career. Starting in floriculture from what was then the Flower Auction Holland, I then moved to the knowledge domain, reviving Wageningen Academy, the business school of Wageningen University and Research and turning it more international. Through there, I traveled to China and Australia a lot, responsible for education and training programmes for companies abroad for example in dairy and post-harvest management. 

From there I was approached to reposition the Dutch branch organisation for dairy, ZuivelNL. This was in the time of agricultural protests in the Netherlands, and the board requested me to dedicate myself full time to the Dutch Nitrogen crisis for the next five years. Then, I moved to the position of executive director of the Dutch Fresh Produce Association for fruit and vegetables for more than four years.

And then there was the vacancy for executive director of the Dutch Potato Association to reposition the organisation. Also a job written on my body. We are now thinking of a new dot on the horizon. So we can transform the sector and the Dutch Potation Association in line with our new ambitions and to help our members to step towards to this dot on the horizon.

How are you settling into your new role?

I really like it, because there’s a whole new world for me to get to know. Potato specifically is quite a complex crop and sector - there’s the breeding, the trade, both in seed and table potato, the decade long breeding cycle that comes with this tetraploid crop. 

I love representing a sector, and everything that comes with it. Representing our members, and trying to raise the sector to an even higher level. Especially the breadth that comes with representing a sector as a whole is great, the huge variety of dynamics and scales you have to look at, that interests me.

There are big challenges in the potato sector right now, and action on them is urgent. I think as a branch organisation you have to be very proactive in this, and have a leading role. You have to be lean and mean, decide which files we can focus on, what we can do in The Hague, what we can achieve in Brussels.

What is in your opinion, the importance of public-private partnerships?

Public-private partnerships are important to us, and a bit of our core too. We ourselves bring public and private partners together, we work a lot with the agricultural counselors, and the government is very important to us.

On your own you can go fast, but together you’re able to go much further. By working together we can make much more impact. Especially on public good: sustainability, health, and prosperity. And especially in the Global South, we need each other to make an impact on those topics there. As a high-income country, we can make a huge impact there.

What have you learned from SeedNL so far?

Recently, your colleague, Gareth, took me on a tour across the world for the potato seed sector development, which I found very insightful. As a person, I am very pragmatic, and SeedNL can sometimes work quite academically, but this world tour has given me a lot of insight, and I believe that there’s still a lot more to learn. 

What do you find the key themes to have discussions on within the SeedNL community?

Questions our members ask of us are: How can we, as the potato sector, contribute to the public good? How can our sector contribute to prosperity, well-being, and health? And how can our sector contribute to the sustainability of food systems? I think SeedNL connects nicely to these topics - especially to how we can contribute to prosperity, well-being, health, and sustainability in focus countries. There is a huge potential for the potato sector there. 

What is your message to the SeedNL Family?

How can we make more impact together? And together contribute to that sustainable food system. We need each other to make a difference in those countries.