Bertine Schieven

Background

About Bertine Schieven

Cooperative business development & farmer entrepreneurship • Knowledge exchange between Dutch producers' organisations and agribusiness and their peers in developing countries. The aim of Agriterra is making cooperatives bankable. By focusing on few clients within a limited number of countries, Agriterra is able to target those cooperatives or other farmer owned enterprises, who are ambitious and economically active, have good management, have more than members and who have plans to invest in order to expand their business. Agriterra’s support is especially based on technical advice from experts from the Dutch agricultural and cooperative sector combined with limited project funding. The advisory services can be applied to all aspects of the business planning process, access to finance trajectory or the implementation phase. Agriterra perceives cooperatives as entities governed (board) and owned (shares) by farmers, meant for (processing and) marketing the farmers’ produce at the best possible price. In that perception, the core activity of a cooperative is business aiming at the highest benefit for the members/shareholders. That’s why a strong emphasis is put on business planning and financial management because no business can be successful without an appropriate business plan and a sound financial management. Specialties: business development services, cooperative development (business planning, governance, financial management).