Green 2000 Ltd. is an Israeli company established in the year 2000. Green 2000 BV is a Dutch subsidiary and the European hub of Green 2000 Ltd.
We are active in agricultural turn-key projects in over 30 countries. Our core business is to take care of planning, set-up, consultation and on-going management of various projects in different spheres of agriculture such as greenhouses, irrigation, open-field crops, aquaculture, processing crops, cut-flowers, dairy, poultry and much more.
Green 2000 owns a bio-sustainable farm in Israel, called ‘Organi-Green’. This farm functions as a visitor’s center. Dayan describes the facilities as a beautiful showroom where they have already welcomed several presidents and dozens of ministers of agriculture from all over the world to show their business cases.
Agricultural Services and Training Centres (ASTC) to empower smaller farmers
Dayan stated that: “Nowadays, Green 2000 mainly focuses on projects in rural areas with so called Agricultural Services and Training Centres (ASTC’s). This is a concept developed to empower smaller farmers, helping them with facilities and full sets of machinery. But on to of that they also offer training and education. Each ASTC consists of four different elements. First in a centre for agro-technical services like tractors, agricultural machinery, and other equipment. Second, a large-scale commercial farm to generate income to maintain the ASTC. In the third place there will be a shared production unit: Community Production Unit and last but not least, an agricultural education kit for elementary schools. In all these projects there will also be school projects where children are inspired and taught about agriculture.”
Currently, Green 2000 is working on a new project in Ivory Coast setting up four different ASTC’s. The ASTC’s will be developed in four regions: Guitry, Korhogo, Zikisso and Kong. They will all have a different expertise and focus on distinctive areas. In Guitry there will be a poultry farm and greenhouses and in Korhogo an aqua-cultural environment for tilapia and fingerlings will be realised. In Zikisso it is planned to have pine-apple and banana plantations, and in Kong there will be another poultry farm for eggs.
Van der Hoeven as the main supplier
For the greenhouses in Guitry the main supplier is van der Hoeven, a specialist in the design, engineering and construction of specialty greenhouses with 135 employees.
Most of our projects are international, and we have been working together with Green 2000 going back as far as 2012. This was an interesting but challenging project in the Ukraine. Even though the project was difficult, we had a great collaboration and we stayed in touch for other projects. And that is also the reason we are now working together on this project in Ivory Coast
According to Dayan: “For this project van der Hoeven is not the only Dutch supplier. We are also working together with other Dutch suppliers such as Netafim / Revaho, Allaround, Celtic, Evax, Jordex Delta Machinery, Patron and many others (see article Revaho-Kazachstan) . Also, Green 2000 represent in Israel the Dutch vegetables seeds company: Rijk Zwaan. This way the Dutch content of this transaction is substantial and this is also important to be able to make use of the export credit insurance from Atradius Dutch State Business.”
The total cost of the whole project for the four ASTC’s in Ivory Coast is exceeding 100 million EUR. To arrange the finance and insurance construction, Green 2000 has been supported by Bluebird Finance.
“We always try to make use of Export Credit Agencies”
Ram Shalita, CEO Bluebird Finance: “For these large scale projects we always try to make use of Export Credit Agencies. Because the main sub-contractor, van der Hoeven, was Dutch and there are several other important Dutch suppliers, we chose to work with Atradius Dutch State Business (ADSB) to insure this project. We already had the pleasure to work with ADSB on a project in Zambia about 18 months ago, and we are happy to say that the experiences around this process were good.”
It is expected that it will take about three years to realise the four ASTC’s. After completion, Green 2000 will still be involved for at least one more year to support the management of the projects.
Each ASTC will create 15000 jobs
Dayan esplained that: “For the project in Ivory Coast we expect that each of these ASTC’s will have between 1000 to 5000 members. These members are local farmers that will make use of our expertise and create new work for people around them as well. This way the ASTC’s will be realising in total around 15.000 jobs for the municipalities.
We have been able to gather a lot of experience with this set up of the ASTC’s. Mainly in Africa, but for instance also in Azerbaijan, Vietnam and Qatar. Every project has its own challenges, especially because we work in rural areas. But we are continuously expanding and also negotiating with for instance Liberia, Madagascar, Honduras and Guatemala.”
According to Spaans: “These kind of export projects are very challenging. Especially in these cases, it is important to have the right business partners and the right people ‘on board’. It is not just the personal relationship with your customer, but you have to take legal and financial considerations in account as well. Make sure that you work with good (local) advisors and truly understand the local circumstances. Because that will make the difference.”
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