Interview with Richard Posma

Check out the interview with Richard Posma, the Chief Representative of NBSO Southern Brazil, who completes his term at the head of the office. He remembered the results obtained in the five-year period in which he commanded NBSO Southern Brazil.

What was the main focus of NBSO Porto Alegre´s work in the last 5 years?

There were several items that are very important. When I started in 2018, the Dutch Embassy, in Brasília, had just decided to reopen the NBSO Porto Alegre.The Dutch government provided a new budget, a new office had to be opened and a new team needed to be recruited. It was my job to shape the office and make it run smoothly, to make the right choices and to create a real Dutch trade office again, in the South of Brazil. After 5 years, i think we could say that we succeeded.

May you mention the main actions carried out?

Our main task is to support Dutch entrepreneurs and companies with an interest in doing business in Brazil. And to organize business meetings and visit programs. In order to give the right advice, and to service these companies, for us it was most important to know our region very well. That’s why I hired people from this region and with exactly the experience that was needed. We were very fast in knowing where the opportunities lay in our region. We work a lot with the water sector, port development, renewable energies, innovation and technology and agritechnology. Now, 5 years later, and have shown that it was a good choice.

We first looked closely at certain combinations for each sector: What are the global developments in these sectors? What can Brazil use and is there a demand? Is there interest in the Netherlands to offer this? Is there a budget somewhere to work on projects? It has to be paid for from somewhere and there has to be a return on investment. We needed to build trust, to build relationships, with all people involved.

I believe we did the right things since the beginning, but we also had the luck that people gave us chances. In the first year, we could already earn back our investments with a successful mission to the Netherlands. Because of our actions we could match Brazil’s demand for onions with the available stocks of Onions in the Netherlands, thousands of containers went from the Netherlands to Brazil, and we made millions for the Dutch State in the first year. But successes like these are only possible if we all work together. We have a small team, but we work well with our media team, our event team, and many people in the Dutch and Brazilian system. I am very thankful for the cooperation with everyone involved, to make this possible. Brazil now makes more use of Dutch knowledge and there are now many more Dutch companies with activities in the southern region, than before.

What are your expectations with the legacy you leave for your successor?

We’ve done a lot, but there’s still so much to do. So, my successor has a great opportunity to look for new projects. Together with the team that is already here, capable of giving great support, my successor can achieve many good results. There are partnerships with the Netherlands and Brazil in several important sectors. For example, the 3 year program of the Green Ports Partnership, a partnership between Brazil and the Netherlands, with the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná, several ports and the Port of Rotterdam and many companies, to work on the energy
transition, to develop wind energy projects and the opportunities to produce Hydrogen.

Another example is the cooperation with Wageningen University in the region, in the field of agribusiness development. And with the billions of investments that will take place in the coming years in Southern Brazil, there are many opportunities for the Netherlands and Brazil to further strengthen each other. This is where our NBSO can play an important role, together with the Dutch Economic network in Brazil and the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO).