Visits to Rabobank and ADM Europoort

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

We woke up to the beautiful view on the 17th floor of our hotel in Utrecht, Netherlands. We learned how busy an elevator can be in a business hotel with some of us waiting 10 minutes for a lift. A few were fortunate enough to locate a service elevator to take them down to the lobby quickly. The hotel supplied us a wonderful continental breakfast complete with fresh fruit, cereal, eggs, and pancakes among other things.

We checked out and departed from our hotel at 8:30am. We drove for five minutes to Rabobank where we almost got clobbered by the many bicyclists zipping by as we exited the bus. We witnessed a bicycle/skateboard accident next to our bus during the morning rush hour. Rabobank gave us a two hour presentation on the global business hierarchy strategy while we enjoyed complimentary coffee and tea. Our presenter even had some questions for us to ponder on regarding today’s agri-sector challenges. It was nice to be involved in the conversation and many students took the opportunity to ask many questions.

Due to traffic, our short bus ride to Rotterdam turned into a two hour trip, but it gave us an opportunity to enjoy the beautiful scenery in the Netherlands while we listened to Hugo’s (our bus driver) unique jams. We arrived at Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) at Europoort, where we ate ham OR cheese sandwiches, a veggie and meatball soup and fruit. The next three hours were spent in lecture with presentations on sustainablilty, biodiesel and ADM’s activities in Europe. During our short break, we got to view the impressive port facilities complete with huge vessels and massive wind turbines all along the harbor. We even got to see a large vessel that just arrived with a fresh load of soybeans from South America.

After taking a break for photos in front of the harbor, we made our goodbyes to the beautiful canal systems of Holland and began our journey to the gorgeous green fields of Germany.After a four and a half hour drive, we reached our superb hotel, ready to eat a late supper and enjoy the Koln nightlife.

By: Cassie Tuzi, Chauncey Watson, Karlie Elliot, and Jessa

Posted by Meredith Blumthal