Dairy farming is a green thread in my life.

Dairy farming is a green thread in the life of Hanneke van Wichen. She works at FrieslandCampina as the link between farmers and consumers, which is exactly what she aspired to be.

“Within FrieslandCampina I am responsible for the policy of animal health and welfare. Besides, I also am the connecting link between the dairy farmers and the company. For example, I work together with key account managers who have to explain to our customers what efforts we make with respect to sustainable dairy farming. Finally, I work together a lot with other dairy companies in the sector. Cooperation within the sector is important. For instance, in cases of bad news this does not only affect the individual companies, but the entire sector.”

Nowadays more and more people want to know how healthy a product is and where it comes from.

“Consumers and customers become increasingly curious. Food safety and quality used to be the most important issues, yet nowadays more and more people want to know how healthy a product is and where it comes from. We have a great story, but we also have to properly present it as FrieslandCampina.”

“Nourishing by nature is my work. It keeps me going every day again. It is not only the purpose of our company, but of our dairy farmers as well. They have family businesses and in order to make it possible for future generations to continue these businesses, they have to make sure they remain healthy. This is hard work. Apart from this they have to cope with rules that are not always clear right away and with a government that often changes its course.”

“Dairy farming is a green thread in my life. I grew up with it and my parents and brother have a dairy farm. I followed an agricultural education in Wageningen, and I finally ended up at FrieslandCampina. Many Dutch people have a wrong impression of the Dutch farming sector. It is important that we tell the consumers the proper story and so we make the gap smaller. We have to keep speaking the language of the farmers in order to remain in contact with our member dairy farmers and to make them move towards more market-oriented operation.”