ADM Europort & EBS

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Today, we toured Archer Daniels Midland in Rotterdam, Netherlands.  Rotterdam
is the largest port city in Europe and the third largest port city in
the world.  We received lectures on soybean and canola (rapeseed)
processing, and learned about the company’s recent sustainability
measures.  Our group was able to tour the different areas of the plant 
and saw the port area where large vessels are loaded.  We concluded
with an enjoyable lunch which included chocolate milk and yogurt
smoothies (something we haven’t had yet in Europe)!

We then drove to Brussels, Belgium to tour the Colruyt Grocery
Distribution Center.  This plant has implemented state-of-the-art robot
technology that is similar to that used in car and machinery
production.  We were all thoroughly impressed with Colruyt’s
technology.  Imagine a huge warehouse with large stacks of all produce
available and when a company places an order, a large vacuum-type robot
sucks up the right amount of the specific produce and separates it so
that it can be distributed.  This was definitely a very innovative way
to distribute groceries and we were glad to experience this awesome
technology.

After Colruyt, we headed to the IBIS hotel outside the airport in Brussels. 
We then took the train into downtown Brussels with a few students from
Leuven.  They walked us to a popular street of restaurants and bars and
we were able to have dinner on our own.  We all had an enjoyable dinner
in several different restaurants and a few of us enjoyed Belgiam
waffles from street vendors for the last time. 

Everyone managed to make it home on the train and then find the connecting
shuttle bus to the hotel.  We tried to go to bed fairly early
(midnight-ish) because we had to wake up at 4:00am for our flight to
Budapest. 

Overall, it was a very interesting but hectic day!  We started out in Germany
the day before, then traveled to the Netherlands, and ended up in
Belgium!  Four countries (Hungary the next day) in two days is a lot to
handle and even though we may be incredibly sleep-deprived, we are
excited to move on to our next adventure!