Duco Delgorge
Founder of the EBC Sustainable Development Committee
As founder and president of MIE PROJECT, Dutchman Duco Delgorge is using his 18 years’ experience in Japan to seize a sizeable slice of the expanding market in organic foods. Delgorge talks about his work and the newly established EBC Sustainable Development Committee.
Sustainable development is an excellent example of a cross-cutting issue, one that touches many areas of the EBC’s work. That is why it deserves its own committee. After all, sustainable development is arguably one of the defining issues of our time.
The committee will seek to help EBC member companies gain access to, and thrive in, the Japanese market. It will also identify where sustainable development is being held back by regulatory issues. One example is in construction, where we have leading European companies unable to develop as they would like in Japan.
European business is also working hard on sustainable development in environmental technology, automobiles and organic food. We intend to reach out to existing committees within the EBC, as well as other foreign chambers of commerce in Japan. We hope to work in close partnership with the Japanese government, bureaucrats, business groups and consumer groups to identify the important changes required to help environmentally friendly businesses and services flourish.
Organic food is a good example of where Japan’s isolation from the rest of the world, combined with unnecessary regulations and bureaucracy, has stunted market development. Japan is about 20 years behind Europe when it comes to organic food.
Organic food perfectly matched my experience in food and interest in sustainability, so in 2005 I established MIE PROJECT. MIE stands for meaning, inspiration and effectiveness, the company’s three core principles. Sustainability and social responsibility are its fundamental goals. Our products are available in department stores, upscale supermarkets, gourmet delicatessens, health food stores and fashionable cafés. Or they can be ordered online from our website.
Some potential distributors have said that organic products are too expensive, or that Japanese people don’t care about the environment. But more people are recognising that organic is coming. And, although there is a price issue, a growing segment of the market is interested in quality and taste, and in health and the environment.
Japan ranks ninth in the world by size of packaged organic food market, while it ranks 17th by per capita consumption. Yet, in 2008 the Japanese organic food market grew 19.5%, after years of single-digit growth. My company is more than doubling its turnover and distribution base every year.
I was born in Prague, to a diplomat father, and hold Dutch nationality. I spent two years in Prague, then two years in New York. Next, we went to Mumbai for three years. And when I was eight we moved to Sydney, where I later studied biomedical science and completed a business degree at the New South Wales University of Technology.
I worked for companies such as Philips Electronics in the Netherlands, Unilever in the UK and Japan, and Kraft Jacobs Suchard in the UK. Before establishing MIE PROJECT I was, for over 12 years, managing director of the Japanese subsidiary of Puratos, a Belgian food ingredients company. I am a vice-chairman of the EBC and was chair of its Food Committee for eight years.
My interest in sustainability was triggered in 1992 when I read Beyond the Limits. That was my epiphany. It explores all of the factors that show the limits to economic growth, so I decided I would love one day to work as part of the solution rather than be part of the problem. My work is just beginning, and hopefully will lead to things that allow me to fulfil my dreams.
Regarding sustainable development, if you think government is going to fix it all, forget it. If you think business is going to fix it all, forget it. The same is true for NGOs. Everyone has to play a part. Clever businesses are taking the initiative and will gain a competitive advantage. Hopefully, the Sustainable Development Committee can help to ensure that the EBC and European business play a role in sustainable development in Japan.
In this way, we can help fulfil the Bruntland Report’s goal of meeting “the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” We have a moral obligation to try our best.
To join the EBC Sustainable Development Committee please contact ebc@gol.com