Hello blog!
This week we’ll be sharing some photos from our field trip last week. Joel currently placed in Malmö had planned 2 full days of visits to plants, warehouses, an independent reseller and farmers into a tight schedule. More than one of us wondered how we should possibly be able to visit all places before leaving on the Sunday but it all went very smoothly and I think we all felt that we learnt a lot during all of the visits. Did you for example know that Swedish carrots can be harvested almost all year round? Or that competitors in the feed production industry are required by law to support each other at bigger stops in production in order to guarantee a steady feed supply to the animals on Swedish farms?
Day 1: Our first stop was at our feed production plant and warehouse in Åhus where we asked Torsten Grönvall loads of purchasing, production and planning related questions and I think some of us even got some valuable inputs to our Strategic Group Assignments.
To keep up with our schedule, we quickly continued towards Eslöv with lunch “on the go” before being greeted at the seed plant by Björn Råsberg. I think neither of us had expected the sheer size and complexity of the warehouse in Eslöv. Over 7000 boxes (3m3 each) that had to be quality tested continually over the year, and in addition to this, the packaging and storing of grain seed with periods of extremely high demand (such as the period just before sowing begins).
After learning about the seed production where more or less everything begins here at Lantmännen we went on to look at something a little further from the grain value chain: Carrot harvesting and packaging in the middle of winter. By covering up the carrots before the temperature drops below zero, carrots can be stored until around mid-May with better taste and quality compared to harvesting during autumn and storing the carrots in a warehouse. This ensures we can have fresh Swedish carrots all year round and makes us less dependent on imports. Even though carrots are not a typical Lantmännen product, it was very interesting to see the impact even a little bit of innovation can have on farming.
We finished off the Friday in the best possible way by making dinner together and taking a relaxing late night sauna.
Stay tuned for Day 2, over and out!
//Aron