By Alwin Gerritsen, Wageningen University, Netherlands, presented at the 16th TCI Global Conference, Kolding 2013.

1. Metropolitan Food Clusters: The Strategic
Capacity of Regional Economic Clusters
Alwin Gerritsen
Academic Summit: Clusters as entrepreneurial ecosystems
4 September 2013

2. Metropolitan Food Clusters: The Strategic
Capacity of Regional Economic Clusters
Alwin Gerritsen, Roald Plug, Remco Kranendonk (Wageningen UR) &
Arnoud Lagendijk (Radboud University Nijmegen)
TCI Global Conference, 4 September, 2013, Kolding, Denmark

3. Research focus
 Clusters as regional ecosystems
● Fixed attributes and generic outcomes
● Globalization
● The region as a strategic opportunity
 Cluster development as a strategic, relational and
visionary activity
● How does cluster development function in this approach?
 Metropolitan Food Clusters (MFC)
● 6 examples (Netherlands, China, India & Mexico)

4. The Metropolitan Food Clusters concept
 Development of a sustainable and efficient agro and food
systems in regional clusters
● Growing middle class, urbanization & rural collapse
● Climate change
● Diminishing stock of natural resources
 Industrialisation, economies of scale and intensification

5. Farmers Collection
Points
Collection
Centres
Primary
processing
Centres
Distribution
Domestic
markets
Export markets
Retail
Metropolitan Food Clusters
Primary
production

6. Gehu Lake
Eco-Agro
sightseein
g district
(Agropark
)
Central
residents and
service
district
Green
environment
industrial
district
Ecological
recreation
district
WAZ-Holland Park, Changzhou, China

7. MFC as a system innovation
1. Resource use efficiency
● Industrial ecology
2. Intelligent agro logistics
3. Vertical integration
4. Horizontal integration
● Plant & animal
5. Institutional
● Governance
● Knowledge management

8. Vertical integration in ‘New Mixed Company’

9. Horizontal Integration in ‘Biopark Terneuzen’
 Agricultural production through industrial
ecology connected to agro-industry
 Focus on sustainable bio-energy production
 In operation
Yara
fertiliser
production
200 ha
Greenhouses
Nedalco
bio-
ethanol
Heros
wastewater
cleaning
BiomassaUnie
co-digester
Roosendaal
Energy
Biodiesel
Proces&wastewater
Proces & wastewater
heat
CO2
CO2
Biomasswaste
Substrate
Power

10. The concept in practice
 A coalition of government agencies, businesses and/or
knowledge holders start a cluster initiative
 MFC as a strategic, guiding and unifying concept
 External organizations (KENGi) are drawn into the
regional processes
● To empower and to organize cluster development
activities
● Knowledge, technology, and facilitation capabilities

11. Activities
 ‘Road shows’: awareness raising
 Feasibility studies
 Masterplanning (co-design)
 Community formation: engagement, alignment and creativity
 Joint fact finding: excursions
 Establishing connections with other trajectories
 Network meetings for matchmaking (B2B)
 Implementation and investments
 Reflexive action: making adjustments ‘on the way’

12. Strategic coupling with MFC communities
 EIP Agricultural productivity and sustainability
● EU
● Operational Group on MFCs
 Climate KIC MFC Community (EU)
 MFC CoPs in the Netherlands and Mexico

13. Regional attributes matter
 Path dependencies
● Evolution
 Social & institutional foundations
● Absorptive capacities
● Values and actor relations

14. Conclusions
 Strategic clustering is about a strategic decision and
about establishing cluster factors to become a ecosystem
● Strategic coupling with external networks and
trajectories
● Engaging in a reflexive visioning process
● Building on the existing attributes and foundations
 ‘Strategic capacity’ as a guiding principle for cluster
policies
● Enhancement by facilitation and knowledge activities
● Reflexive action

15. Thank you for
your attention!
Questions /
comments?