By Peter Smeets, Alterra Wageningen, presented at the 17th TCI Global Conference, Monterrey 2014.

1. Metropolitan Food Clusters
Peter Smeets
New Cluster Approaches
12 November 2014

2. METROPOLITAN FOOD CLUSTERS
PROVIDING FOOD FOR AN INCREASING URBAN WORLD POPULATION

3. WORLD GLOBAL FOOD DEMAND CAN
ONLY BE MET THROUGH GLOBAL
AGROLOGISTIC NETWORK

4. WORLD GLOBAL FOOD DEMAND CAN
ONLY BE MET THROUGH GLOBAL
AGROLOGISTIC NETWORK
• Population growth strongest in India,
Africa, East and Southeast Asia
• Cities eat land, pollute land as well as
water resources in China and India
• Agricultural productivity for arable
crops can be improved in S-America
and Central Asia
• Growing import dependency
• Only with global agrologistic network
a stable food provision can be
guaranteed!!

5. RESOURCE USE EFFICIENCY IS KEY FACTOR
IN IMPROVING PRODUCTIVITY

6. METROPOLITAN FOOD PRODUCTION IS TAKING
SHAPE IN CLUSTERS :
TROUGH HITECH INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE
• Agropark Queretaro:
300 ha of hightech
greenhouses
• From 2004 onwards
this cluster has
developed without a
design

7. METROPOLITAN FOOD PRODUCTION IS TAKING
SHAPE IN CLUSTERS :
TROUGH HITECH INDUSTRIAL AGRICULTURE
Integrated design for an agro-eco-city in Liaocheng, Shandong
China: 200 ha of greenhouse cluster.
Construction of
innovation-education
building preceeds start of
greenhouse building.

8. METROPOLITAN FOOD PRODUCTION IS TAKING
SHAPE IN CLUSTERS :
THROUGH VERTICAL CHAIN INTEGRATION
• Significant cost reduction through higher
productivity and less transport
• Integration reduces transport and veterinary risks
• Added value stays within chain
• Large scale and industrial mode of production
enables radical environmental technology:
» Smell reduction
» Ammonia emission reduction
» Fine dust reduction
Processing
Slaughtering
Broilers
Breeding
Egg production
Mother animals
Genetics
Short
chain
broiler
production
manure
CO2
Energy
Retail
Feed

9. METROPOLITAN FOOD PRODUCTION IS TAKING
SHAPE IN CLUSTERS :
THROUGH HORIZONTAL INTEGRATION (1)
• Agropark in operation in sea harbour
• Primary agricultural production through industrial
ecology connected to agro-industry
• Focus on sustainable development of bio-energy
production

10. METROPOLITAN FOOD PRODUCTION IS TAKING
SHAPE IN CLUSTERS :
THROUGH HORIZONTAL INTEGRATION (2):
AgriportA7
• Centre for growing vegetables, agribusiness
industry and logistics, 30 minutes from Amsterdam
• Primary production:
– Large scale glasshouses : 300 ha growing to
1.000 ha
– Field crops : 40.000 ha
• Vegetables industry, logistics and services
– Business park: 70 ha
• Geothermic energy for heating
• Microsoft server centre providing heat for
greenhouse and acquiring decentralised power
provision

11. METROPOLITAN FOOD PRODUCTION IS TAKING
SHAPE IN METROPOLITAN FOOD CUSTERS :
AGROPARKS
A spatial cluster of
high-productive plant
and/or animal
production and
processing units in
industrial mode
combined with the
input of high levels of
knowledge and
technology. The
application of
industrial ecology
reduces costs and
environmental
emissions

12. METROPOLITAN FOOD PRODUCTION IS TAKING
SHAPE IN METROPOLITAN FOOD CLUSTERS :
RURAL TRANSFORMATION CENTRES
Rural Transformation
Centres are satellites
in rural areas where
the inputs from land
dependent production
for the whole network
are collected and/or
processed.
RTCs provide training
and education to
capacitate farmers to
increase their
productivity.

13. METROPOLITAN FOOD PRODUCTION IS TAKING
SHAPE IN METROPOLITAN FOOD CLUSTERS :
CONSOLIDATION CENTRES
In consolidation
centers, products, both
raw and processed,
coming from the rural
environment or from
specialized agroparks,
are combined with
import flows, if
necessary be processed
further, and then
recombined and
distributed into the
metropole

14. METROPOLITAN FOOD PRODUCTION IS TAKING
SHAPE IN METROPOLITAN FOOD CLUSTERS :
GREENPORT VENLO
Greenhouse area
Consolidation Centre
(Sub)urban area
Harbour
Industrial ecology
processing restproducts
from agrofood
Floriade
Consolidation Centre Freshpark Venlo
Isolated Greenhouses
Large scale Pig farm
Large scale Chicken
fLaarrmge scale Dairy farm
Single farm sites.
The map only shows
the 30% largest
primary producers in
the area:

15. A METROPOLITAN FOOD CLUSTERS IS A
REGIONAL INNOVATION CLUSTER
SME metal and building industry
Other customers
Software
developers
Financial
services
Other customers
Advanced
Producer
services
Regional &
local
governement
Processors, logistics, trade,
maintainance
Critical mass
of Prime
producers in a
cluster
Marketing and
communication
Other customers
Other customers

16. IMPORTANT LESSONS LEARNED FROM DESIGN:
PRACTICE IS CO-DESIGN
• The concept of Kairos. This is the ability to act strategically and at the
right time in a complex dialogue with many partners.
• The involvement of experts, including ‘professional amateurs’, with a
range of expertise, skills and practical wisdom, performing a
‘multilingual’ conversation.
• Dialogue takes place in a ‘free space’, implying a state of mind and
atmosphere without obligations in terms of interests, cognitive
frameworks and time, as a condition for learning and creativity, where
participants have an open mind.
• The creation of new insights through a design approach: the iterative
process of creative imagination and reflective judgement.

17. IMPORTANT LESSONS LEARNED:
WE CALL THE ENGINE BEHIND REGIONAL
INNOVATION CLUSTER A KENGI:
IT’S FUEL IS TRUST
Politicians go for power Entrepreneurs go for profit
Government Entrepreneurs
Transition management
NGO’s go for influence and
members
facilitates
transfers between
the currencies and builds trust
Knowledge
institutions
Knowledge workers go
for peer reviewed publications
NGO’s

18. IMPORTANT LESSONS LEARNED:
INTEGRATED DESIGN OF HARDWARE, ORGWARE
AND SOFTWARE IS NECESSARY.
• Hardware is easy,
• Orgware is difficult
• Software takes time

19. DEVELOPMENT OF METROPOLITAN FOOD
CLUSTERS IN MEXICO: DEMOGRAPHY

20. DEVELOPMENT OF METROPOLITAN FOOD
CLUSTERS IN MEXICO
Monterey MFC
Central Mexico MFC
Nayarit
Aguascalientes
Chiapas

21. DEVELOPMENT OF AGROCLUSTERS IS
PART OF THE REFORMA RURAL OF
CURRENT GOVERNMENT
• Federal Ministry of Finance is investing in agropark
development as shareholder
• Federal Ministry of Agriculture has set up a subsidy
programm: “Systema nacional de agroparques”.
• Federal government has release a National Vision on
Agrologistics serving as a framework for regional
development
• States, municipalities and private investors are developing
plans and are investing...

22. DEVELOPMENT OF METROPOLITAN FOOD
CLUSTERS IN MEXICO: AGUASCALIENTES
Agrologistics
Regional MFC network Aguascalientes Zoning plan agropark Agros1
Zoning plan RTC Asientos

23. DEVELOPMENT OF METROPOLITAN FOOD
CLUSTERS IN MEXICO: NAYARIT
Agropark Compostella
phase 1
Agropark Compostella
phase 1: Industrial
Ecology
Agropark Compostella
phase 2
Regional MFC network
Nayarit

24. DEVELOPMENT OF METROPOLITAN FOOD
CLUSTERS IN MEXICO: CHIAPAS
Regional MFC network Chiapas Zoning plan agropark Tapachula

25. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
 If possible co-design of metropolitan food clusters is to be preferred in
stead of organic growth.
 There is no blueprint that can be copied but innovation principles can
be taken as inspiration:
 Resource use efficiency
 Vertical and horizontal integration generationg industrial ecology
 Elaboration of the agrologistic network
 Integrated co-design of hardware, orgware and software
 Metropolitan food clusters are part of a transition process that takes
decades in stead of years and often meets fierce opposition in society.
 We propose to set up a theme within TCI on metropolitan food
clusters.