Delicious tomatoes on the vine, healthy nutritious salads, a rich variety of colourful flowers and plants, new sustainable ways of poultry and meat production, … On a daily basis, the innovative and diverse agribusiness region between the rivers Rhine and Maas in the Netherlands and Germany is busy pleasing the growing demands of the dynamic market in Europe and abroad. To find all these food and flower products in today’s supermarkets is regarded as absolutely normal. But how do they find their way to the shopping baskets of the consumers? How are they produced, packed, traded, transported and sold? Who ‘develops’ new food concepts? And, very important, how is it guaranteed that everything is good and healthy and ‘value for money’? All these questions and many more, have to be answered by professionals in the world of food & flowers.

The ‘world’ of food & flowers covers all the primary production of fresh food in all thinkable domains: from meat over dairy, mushrooms and nuts to all kinds of fruits and vegetables. The ‘flower’ part is endless: flowers, plants, trees, garden products, etc. Besides production also the first steps of processing of the primary products are part of our world of food & flowers. But don’t forget the entire surrounding environment of suppliers, consultants, and logistical service providers etc., who form an integral part in this dynamic field of business. Yes, it deals with products and services, but bottom-line it always concerns people. People who see it as their challenge to fulfil the true needs of the consumers all around the globe: healthy and safe food and a nice and personal decorated ‘living space’.

Combining Marketing and Logistics, Food & Flower Management is a route of the study courses International Marketing and Logistics Management. Students can either focus on a more marketing or on a more logistics oriented approach. During the first year, students of both directions are fully combining their study. After this first year, they have to choose between specializing in ‘food and agro-marketing’ or ‘food and agro-logistics’. Marketing is focusing on the entire process of research, analysis, strategic planning and marketing & sales execution within the manifold organizations active in the agribusiness.

Internal production logistics, the whole packaging process, the transport and distribution challenges and all the aspects of the entire supply chain form the main topics in the logistics variant of Food & Flower Management. Clearly in both variants, the courses are enhanced with business economics, social and communications skills, management skills and other valuable and necessary competences in order to be successful as a ‘food & flower manager’.

All courses at Fontys International Campus Venlo have a duration of four years. Each year is made up of two semesters. The first course year is called Foundation Year. The Foundation Year offers room for orientation and selection.

After the first year you enter the three-year Main Phase. In the second course year this Main Phase consists of the acquisition of professional competences in the Young Enterprise Project. During the Work Placement in the third course year all students go to companies for a 5-month work placement. After this you return to ‘the Learning Community’ for feedback and additional subjects. At the end of the course you will write your graduation assignment. Once again this takes place within the framework of a 5-month work placement in a company.
 

After your studies the world of Food and Flower will be open to you. Take part at the supply chain of the agriculture and food industry as a Product Developer or apply your skills in commercial enterprises as a Quality Manager. No matter what you do, the study course Food & Flower Management has provided you with the required know-how to meet the challenges of the economic chain and the chain of goods in the agriculture industry. Whether in the primary production, wholesale, processing, import and export or in the food retailing, prove your skills as an Account, Product, Logistics or Marketing Manager – first of course as a Junior and later as a Senior Manager.