I am Transport Manager at Aviko. I have been working at Aviko for 25 years and head up the Transport department. We plan and arrange the transport of our products for all of Aviko to our customers; from Western Europe to Eastern Europe and overseas. We aim to do this in the most sustainable way possible. Sustainability has been playing a key role in our daily transport since 2014. Our participation in the Dutch government's Lean & Green programme makes us even more aware and helps us reduce our carbon footprint by 20%. This way we contribute to Aviko's sustainability agenda.

We are working on making our logistics more sustainable in the Netherlands, as well as in all of Europe. In the Netherlands, we primarily focus on the intermodal transport of containers by inland waterway, but also on more efficient vehicles. For example, we are using an Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) on the premises of our plant in Steenderen. This is an unmanned, 100% electric truck. In addition, we aim to make use of electric vehicles over greater distances as well. For example, we are working on an electric truck to transport goods from our plant in Steenderen to the container terminal in Doesburg.

The e-truck is expected to make the journey between the plant and the container terminal 6 to 8 times per day. A return trip is 55 kilometres. It takes 40 minutes to charge the e-truck. This needs to be done every two trips and perfectly matches the scheduled breaks for our drivers. Electric transport offers many benefits: it is better for the environment, as well as surrounding residents, it makes less noise and does not emit any particulate matter. We spent a long time looking for a heavy e-truck suitable for transporting 50 tonnes. Now that we have found such a truck, we are looking forward to its operation in actual practice. If this trial is successful, we will scale up.

In a broader context, focusing on Europe, we aim to increasingly transport our goods by train. We have developed intermodal routes: from our plant in Poperinge (Belgium) we bring our products to a nearby train station in Northern France. From there the goods are transported to Southern France and Spain. We are proud of the fact that today we are transporting approximately 50% of the goods destined for Southern France and 25% of the goods destined for Spain by train. We also make use of trains for transporting goods to Poland. However, the reliability of train connections continues to be a challenge. We aim to increasingly make use of trains, but of course we are only using reliable connections.

As Aviko, we are intrinsically motivated to become a pioneer in the area of sustainable transport. We aim to develop sustainable solutions and to roll these out to additional locations. Sustainability affects the entire chain: from farm to fork. We are closely working together with our suppliers to develop sustainable transport solutions. Innovating entails risks that we can learn and grow from together. This way we can take large steps forward. The AGV on the premises of our plant in Steenderen and the e-truck for transport to the container terminal in Doesburg are nice examples of this.

Frank Scholten - Transport Manager Aviko