Overview

Introduction:
The Innovators Global Network is offering a unique opportunity for leading executives and R&D professionals involved in agri-food, health and nutrition to connect, learn and share with their counterparts from Europe and around the world, the EURO SMART FOOD TOUR 2004.

This seven-day visit to Germany, The Netherlands and Switzerland will network you into some of Europe’s and the worlds leading organizations involved in providing nutritional foods and dietary supplements that promote health and well-being to their customers.

The Innovators is working with two world-class organizations in offering the Euro Smart Food Tour 2004. Both Bayer CropScience (Germany) and Wageningen University (The Netherlands) invite you to get up close and see what the Europeans are doing when it comes to healthy food and lifestyles.

Why a Focus on Nutrition, Health and Well Being?
"We are moving from an agri-food business to an R&D driven nutrition, health & wellness company.” Luis Cantarell, Head of Nutrition, Nestlé

You are what you eat. Today, increasingly health conscious consumers understand the meaning of this well-known phrase. The nutrients we consume through foods break down, replace old cells and become part of our new cell structure - and we literally become what we eat. As life expectancies increase along with the desire for an active and healthy lifestyle, the nutrient content of our food plays a growing role in consumer choices.

Topics previously only discussed in scientific laboratories now find their way into everyday conversations. Knowledgeable and informed consumers want a healthy and quality lifestyle and are willing to make the decisions needed to make that happen.

Sales of dietary supplements (functional foods, nutraceuticals and organics) in the next three years are estimated to grow 7-10% annually compared to only 2-3% for the conventional food business.

The world market for natural health products (NHP) is estimated to be between US$70 billion upwards of US$250 billion depending on how you define the area. It is a large market and growing larger every day.

Why Europe?
When you think of Europe - you immediately think of food. It is said “ Europeans live to eat and North Americans eat to live”. Visiting Europe gives you a glimpse into what key changes are coming to the food industry, especially as it involves nutrition, health & wellness.

Differences in this area exist between North America and Europe. In Canada and the US, the primary category markets are grain and bakery products. In Europe, dairy foods predominate while in the UK the top category is ready-to-eat cereals. Probiotic dairy (beneficial bacteria) foods dominate in Japan.

We Start in Germany,
Germany is regarded as the economic driving force of Europe. With 83 million people it has one of Europe’s highest GDP’s. The Germans are recognized as among the world’s largest and most technologically advanced producers of iron, steel, coal, chemicals, and let us not forget cars.

Although just the size of Montana, 33 percent of German land is arable and about 2.7 percent of the labor force is dedicated to agriculture including such crops as wheat, barley, potatoes, cattle, pigs and poultry.

Germany is the largest market for functional foods in Europe, followed by France and Britain. Also, Germany is a pharmaceutical powerhouse and represents about 29 percent of pharmaceutical sales in Western Europe and is the third-largest market for pharmaceuticals in the world after the U.S. and Japan. Germany plays a leading role in the area of life sciences and biotechnology research as well.

Then move to The Netherlands…
The Netherlands and the Dutch were the early traders who sailed the world’s seas looking for spices and other non-perishable food items to take back to Europe. Today, some of the world’s most famous and successful food and beverage companies, like Unilever and Heineken, are based in The Netherlands.

The Netherlands is the world’s third largest exporter of agricultural produce (20 billion euros annually) and 10% of the country’s GNP is generated from the agri-food industry. The Netherlands invests the most per capita in food R&D in the world – 2% per annum.

The Dutch are known for their innovative products, processes and services including plant breeding, food safety genomics based tracking & tracing, new ingredients for the food, pharma and personal care sectors and smart packaging, to name a few.

And end up in Switzerland.
One of our prime reasons for including Switzerland is the opportunity to visit Nestlé’s world headquarters in Vevy. Founded in 1866, today Nestlé is the worlds largest food and beverage company with sales of about CD$60 billion and 230,000 employees. Nestlé has factories or operations in almost every country in the world.

The Swiss have been cultivating food since 6,000 B.C. Only a small part of Switzerland is suitable for agriculture but due to modern agricultural technology, Switzerland provides for 68% of it's own food needs. Having said this, some of the highest food prices in the world are found in Switzerland.

Over 5% of the population works in agriculture. They grow sugar beet, fodder crop, grains, vegetables, apples and pears. Dairy, milk and chocolate products are important export products.