Berry Marttin
Member of the Managing Board
responsible for Rural Retail
In ter national, Sustain ability,
Leasing and Banking for Food
Inspiration Center.
About this
Report
Chairman's
Foreword
Corporate
Management Report Appendices Governance
Consolidated Financial Company Financial
Statements Statements
For me personally our mission is primarily
about how our bank can help to feed the
10 billion people who will be living on this
planet in a sustainable manner. We need to
change our eating habits and change how we
produce food. It's vital that we adopt new ways
of thinking. I want to find new angles from
which to consider specific food chain
problems. For example, why don't calculations
of the cost of food production include the cost
to the planet? I want us to engage in the
debate on this important topic. It's at the very
heart of our mission. It is a debate we must
hold with businesses and clients. But it starts
here, inside the bank.
In 2018 we set up a Food&AgriLeadership Team
in which we join forces and bring all our
knowledge to bear for a higher purpose: to
discuss the role we as a bank can play to help
the Food Agri industry to improve its ability
to feed the world sustainably. The council is
where everything comes together. We ask
questions like what exactly is involved in
calculating the carbon emissions of a product?
Wouldn't nutrient content be a better basis for
calculating the carbon footprint of food?
Together you always gain new insights. Let me
give an example from my own experience: as
a farmer I know that quickly separating
manure into solid and liquid parts almost
instantly reduces ammoniac emissions
radically. I want to catalyze that sort of new
thinking inside the bank. I feel that's my
personal contribution to our mission.
Rabobank is a major international player when
it comes to financing farmers and all other
major players in the F&A value chain. We
engage with them in debate, we set terms for
our loans, and we connect parties in our
network wherever we think it's useful. This role
fits perfectly with our mission and that's why I
place so much emphasis on the need to be
well informed about what we're dealing with.
We must keep asking critical questions. It's the
best way to find solutions for the future of our
planet.
Banks are used to viewing the world primarily
from a financial perspective. I believe that in
the future, banks should create a kind of e-
rating to pinpoint where their clients stand
from an environmental perspective. They
should reward clients with a high e-rating and
engage in dialogue with lower-scoring clients.
The crucial question would then be: how
much risk are banks prepared to take if clients
want to improve their e-rating but are finding
it hard to finance that shift?
