AgroFreshPark Łódzkie
Poland is seen as one of the largest growers in the European agrifood market and therewith constitutes a strong competitor, but also an excellent partner for the Dutch business community. For that reason a Dutch-Polish consortium is in the process of developing an agrifood cluster called "AgroFreshPark Poland" (AFPL).
This cluster consists of three related but functionally, different elements:
- FreshPark, a business park for transport/logistics (cross-docking), trade, packaging and processing of fresh produce;
- AgroPark, an area reserved for large-scale greenhouse production with all the supporting infrastructure, and
- AgroFreshPark Services Centre, providing services such as facility management, utilities, training and education, estate management, demonstration and promotion of technology.
AFPL will be situated in the heart of Poland in the Łódzkie Region, and will be structured similar to Dutch agrilogistic & greenport examples (i.e. Fresh Park Venlo, Agriport A7), but adapted to the Polish market and in close cooperation with local partners.
In this cluster Polish and Dutch companies, producing, processing and distributing fresh food will be accommodated not only for the international markets but also for the so-called “local for local” market. The consortium wants to enter into partnerships with Polish companies, Dutch companies already active in Poland and offer and realize competitive and sustainable conditions in the areas of energy, water and waste management and facilitate the education and training of professionals. It will develop and create financial mechanisms to allow small and medium sized companies (SME’s) to be active as partners in this agrifood cluster.
The initiative is supported by the Dutch government under the Partners for International Business (PIB) program; a public-private partnership covenant has been signed last year. Within this program two liaisons managers have been appointed to support Dutch and Polish companies and institutions.
For more information: www.agrofreshpark.com
Coordination: Kenlog b.v. Honselersdijk, the Netherlands, info@agrofreshpark.com