ABSTRACT
AVEBE is a co-operative based in the north of the Netherlands, in the region called the Veenkoloniën, producing and marketing potato starch and starch derivatives. In recent years AVEBE has followed a strategy of international expansion through Foreign Direct Investments (FDI), not only in nearby countries but also in Asia and South America. The strategy is not unchallenged and does not have a long history. This paper investigates the background to the international expansion of AVEBE. The nature of the internationalization of AVEBE differs sharply from that of the private firm of W.A. Scholten, also a potato starch producer, founded in the nineteenth century, and at that time truly internationally oriented. We will focus especially on the differences between the co-operative and this private firm.
The Veenkoloniën is a region in the northeast of the Netherlands (Figure 8.1) between the sandy part of the province of Drenthe and the German border. It is the Dutch part of the 50,000 hectares of Bourtanger Moor that used to cover the whole northern border area of Germany and the Netherlands (Figure 8.2).3 An important peat bog developed there from 5500 BC. After 1600 the peat was systematically removed, primarily to serve as fuel. The region became an important rural-industrial area during the peat-digging period that lasted until the 1930s. Part of the industry was related to the peat digging (peat-litter, but also shipbuilding, for instance), another part to agriculture (the production of potato starch and strawboard). The availability of cheap fuel furthered energy-intensive industries, not only agro-industries, but also, among others, the glass industry. The industrial development had a deconcentrated spatial structure. Industrial development occurred in different villages and towns (Hoogezand, Sappemeer, Pekela, Winschoten, Veendam, Wildervank, Stadskanaal).
