Agriculture and Dirty Rivers: Mark Rutte will do this in India. India: the land of the Taj Mahal, Bollywood and curry. It is the second largest economy in Asia and a home for 1.3 billion inhabitants. Prime Minister Mark Rutte will visit this week for a trade mission. And he is accompanied by a large delegation of 131 Dutch companies and four ministers.
Such a trade mission is pretty lucrative for Dutch companies. During a visit to China last April, 248 million euros were contracted. Rutte will talk to Prime Minister Modi in India about the impending steel war with the United States and negotiations on a trade agreement between the EU and India. The two also spoke in The Hague last year. Rutte gave Modi a gift as a present, reports eBuzzFeed.
India is looking for investments, and the Dutch delegation will mainly try to gain a foothold in strengthening the Indian agricultural sector and in a project to clean the Ganges River. Our exports to India amount to 2 billion euros, mainly chemicals and machines. Conversely, we import for 3 billion euros from India, which are primarily petroleum products.
The Brexit will also be discussed during the three-day mission. VNO-NCW chairman Hans de Boer thinks that the Netherlands can fill a gap, is stated in a statement. “Together with Prime Minister Rutte, I want Indian companies to look more often to the Netherlands in the run-up to Brexit, which is the only way they can expect to enter the EU market.” We need to ensure that the Netherlands is at the top of Indian entrepreneurs if they are going to reorient themselves… “
30 percent of the Indians are vegetarian, a market that Henk Schouten from Schouten Europe likes to indulge. With his company in meat substitutes, he will also be present during the trade mission in the coming days. “India is an emerging market with many vegetarians, but the consumption of meat is growing, and that is a threat if China and India eat just as much meat as we do you have a problem.” Schouten will sign a contract in the Asian country for a factory for his meat substitutes.
Wageningen University is also taking part in the visit in India, and they will talk about the construction of fruit warehouses in Himachal Pradesh, a mountainous state in the northwest of the country. “India is an interesting country for us, even if you look at the economy and our knowledge can contribute to the way in which India wants to deal with food production and agriculture now and in the future,” says spokesman Vincent Koperdraat.