Can you briefly introduce yourself?

“My name is Luca Spotti (46), and I grew up on my parents’ farm in Parma, located in the Emilia-Romagna region in the north of Italy. After graduating from the University of Bologna with a technical degree, I have almost exclusively worked in agriculture. Building on the experience of my own dairy farm, I have worked as a sales agent in the agricultural market for different companies. I actually found Duynie on the LinkedIn page for graduates from my university and immediately sent in my CV! Starting as a sales agent for the province of Bergamo, my role has expanded along with Duynie’s growth in Italy. As commercial manager, I now oversee all sales activities in Italy.”

What’s it like working with co-products in Italy?

“Before Duynie, the Italian mindset on co-products was fairly conservative. Our challenge was – and to some degree still is – to change that view: from residual streams to valuable opportunities. As the first company in Italy to approach co-products this way we are starting to see a shift in this mindset, and we aim to become the leading authority in valorising co-products. Another challenge is the difference between working in the north and south of Italy. In the north, we sell directly to the farmer. In the south, we work with distributors. This means you have to master different approaches and have knowledge of both the strategic and technical aspects.”

What do you appreciate about working for Duynie?

“I like the diversity of my job: each challenge is an opportunity to get out of your comfort zone and grow as a person and professional. You need to be adaptive. And I appreciate Duynie’s familiar approach. Not only towards customers, but also towards employees. There is a real family feeling, even between the international teams. I found a sense of community, sharing and helping each other at Duynie. That’s something I really learned from the Dutch, and that I hope to remain a part of for a very long time.

How do the Duynie values (Passionate, Entrepreneurial, Innovative and Reliable) contribute to your daily work and decision-making?

For me, this is not a job, but really a kind of lifestyle, it is a part of my life and I feel really passionate about it. Duynie gives me the opportunity to be entrepreneurial. That makes it happen that we can change the mindset of suppliers and customers in Italy about the co-product market. Our approach is totally new, innovative. It is an unbelievable opportunity to grow and try to change the mindset.

The most important Duynie value for myself is reliable. At Duynie there is this kind of reliability, transparency that is totally different from other Italian companies. Also internally the management team gives me trust to make decisions for the Italian market and they support this.

You ran the Breda Singelloop with Cosun! What was that experience like?

“Unbelievable! I was the only Duynie employee, but the Cosun team made me feel right at home. During the run, everyone was shouting my name and I met so many amazing people. The experience really broadened my horizon regarding Cosun as a whole. Since the Singelloop, I have been learning more about the relationships between the business groups and I hope to work with my international colleagues on our shared goals in the future. As far as the Singelloop is concerned: I’ll be back next year, and I hope to bring more Duynie colleagues with me!”