Vorstandsvorsitzender (CEO / Chairman of the Management Board), AGRAVIS Raiffeisen AG
#keepquestioning mit Hajo Schumacher – Dr. Dirk Köckler (AGRAVIS)
Heute bei #keepquestioning: Dr. Dirk Köckler, Vorstandsvorsitzender AGRAVIS.
About Dirk Köckler
In a 2020 interview, Dirk Köckler discussed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on agriculture, stating that supply security was not at risk. He said, "Wir werden uns an dieses Leben mit dem Virus anpassen müssen, solange wir keine Impfstoffe haben. Und ja, da muss man auch mal ein Experiment wagen." Köckler also called for greater objectivity in public discourse, saying, "Wir müssen weg von Konfliktnews, von Politisierung. Diese Sachlichkeit, die gerade diese riesige Herausforderung erfordert, die uns Deutsche zu eigen ist." Speaking at the 2019 AGRAVIS annual general meeting, Köckler outlined strategic goals for the company, including strengthening its cooperative ties and bundling digital services on a single platform. He described the company’s response to the 2018 drought as well-managed and noted that AGRAVIS had closed the fiscal year with a turnover of 6.6 billion euros.
Transcript (29 segments)
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Hajo Schumacher0:00
Hello and welcome to a new episode of 'Noch Fragen' from Unsere Besten Ding. My name is Hajo Schumacher. Normally I'm all about blooming and growing, but today I'm totally serious because we're talking to HR people, IT and communications people, and also real bosses—bosses of bosses—about what this time is doing to us, what it's doing to companies, and how we're getting through it. Today with us, Dr. Dirk Köckler, CEO of AGRAVIS—a very interesting construction, an AG and at the same time a cooperative. AGRAVIS—correct me please, Dirk—supplies farmers with everything they need, whether that's feed, fertilizer, tractors, everything right?
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Dirk Köckler0:50
That's exactly right. We supply throughout the north, west, and east of Germany.
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Hajo Schumacher1:01
And agriculture can rightfully be called system-relevant. Here in Berlin in the big city, there was briefly this toilet paper hoarding at the beginning, but otherwise the supply situation is absolutely fine—you can't read the crisis at the supermarket. How is it out in the countryside? Is everything running normally with the farmers?
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Dirk Köckler1:29
We were already challenged right at the beginning with interest in the fact that we are system-relevant. That's a completely new feeling for us. Going to the supermarket and seeing several shelves nearly empty—but then this harvest comes from our fields, from our wheat. That's a new feeling, a good feeling. The system-relevance has been received very positively among colleagues and farmers. The concept of appreciation has really arrived—they see that they make a contribution to society. That was a strong feeling through Corona, something that had been missing for a long, long time.
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Hajo Schumacher2:14
What does that mean for AGRAVIS? You have all sorts of things—you have shops, workshops for agricultural machinery. Are they all fully operational?
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Dirk Köckler2:31
We naturally adapted to the regulations. The 800-square-meter rules for retail—we applied those in Lower Saxony based on assortment. Feed could be sold but flowers couldn't. Politicians learned quickly. For about 14 days now, we've been opening all our sales units—the compound feed mills, the agricultural technology workshops. We've been working from the beginning in compliance with hygiene rules.
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Hajo Schumacher3:01
How is it for your company, for the employees themselves?
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Dirk Köckler3:04
I'm not in the corporate office in Münster—I'm sitting at the family farm with concern. Many of us live in rural areas. We've been through real crises before, so our crisis teams know how to function. We very early on sent employees home to work remotely, and we've been active in this mode for seven to eight weeks now. Touch wood, the positive news is that infections are in the single-digit range. The employees are healthy, and through shift work we're functioning in all areas.
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Hajo Schumacher4:44
How does it look in agriculture specifically? The farmer who climbs onto his tractor in the morning and straps the sprayer behind him—he actually has no way of avoiding contact. So agriculture is actually a relatively safe industry, right? Few contacts.
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Dirk Köckler5:02
That's also an answer to why we have such manageable case numbers—it's certainly an advantage of rural areas. But the biggest challenge for AGRAVIS in the last two months was flipping the digitalization switch. We equipped about 1,500 people with laptops and applied digitalization across the board. In the functional areas—accounting, HR—they're all working from home. That's a tremendous step forward that we'll naturally want to carry into the future. It's a learning accelerator, the strongest intervention in our large and old company. We celebrated Raiffeisen's 200th birthday two years ago, so we're not exactly the biggest startup innovation driver—there are forces of inertia. But Corona was a catalyst.
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Hajo Schumacher5:58
When you look ahead now, just through the end of the year—will agriculture simply continue stably, or will there eventually be bottlenecks, delivery difficulties? The chain in agriculture is completely globally networked.
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Dirk Köckler6:29
We've all been amazed to discover that many medications come from Asia. It's the same with other chemical basic products in nutrition—vitamin A, which we need for animal nutrition. We have supply chain disruptions in the milk sector—some dairies operating on international markets are having significant distribution problems. The fruit and vegetable sector—we've seen how strongly we depend on seasonal laborers from Eastern Europe. Asparagus not being picked, strawberries not being harvested—very drastic effects for individual operations.
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Hajo Schumacher7:24
But do you see visible problems ahead? As a good journalist, I have to create drama—must we all starve soon? Or can agriculture adapt quickly? All the meat that's produced doesn't just go to German supermarkets anymore—it goes to China. Is that slowly getting back on track, or are there really bigger disruptions?
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Dirk Köckler8:00
It varies greatly by sector. Short-term planning is happening everywhere. We have delays and price reductions—meat is affected, as are other products. Following the logic: the Americans make ethanol from corn, and if ethanol production drops, corn prices fall immediately on the commodity exchanges, affecting our product prices. The highest attention is needed, especially in grain. The economic disruptions could still be colossal. But regarding shortages—I don't see supply security as endangered, except in fruit and vegetables where we import up to two-thirds of certain products. That's why the decision to fly in 40,000 seasonal workers has helped many operations. But it varies greatly—no uniform statement is possible.
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Hajo Schumacher8:58
You haven't noticed any trend of German students increasingly entering the asparagus harvesting market?
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Dirk Köckler9:07
I hear from farmers that it's working, and I think that's a great message. Asparagus picking is hard work—I can recommend it! I don't want to broadly deny that it works in some places. It varies from region to region. I also know of operations where employees from the neighborhood, where short-time work plays a role, are being recruited as labor. So I wouldn't deny it across the board.
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Hajo Schumacher9:50
A word on government policy—short-time work might be a topic for you, immediate aid is a topic for you. Otherwise, are you at peace with what the Economics Minister, Finance Minister, and Chancellor are putting together?
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Dirk Köckler10:03
As of today, we're truly grateful that we're system-relevant, that we're allowed to work and function. The workforce has been on board from the first hour. That shows the value of a large company like AGRAVIS with great infrastructure and logistics. We also see in our mature democracy that politics works—chapeau. You have to make decisions, and some we'll need to justify in hindsight, but they were needed. Clear guidelines help us operate our businesses. We get along very well with the political guidelines. We hope we won't need short-time work or financial aid, but the instruments must be available. Our field service still visits farmers following hygiene rules, and increasingly everything is digital—if you're stuck at home, you can use Teams meetings to exchange with the field staff about what's happening in the fields. We're learning from that too.
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Hajo Schumacher11:31
Is there anything you still want to get off your chest?
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Dirk Köckler11:43
Touch wood, we're keeping our heads above water. But what's dramatic for our industry is the weather—it's the climate. I read that we've had 17 springs that were too dry. We see it in the forests—spruce trees dying, beech trees dying. Last week I was really praying this wouldn't happen. It's not a business model. I'm truly grateful today that precipitation is coming from the west. We'll have proper low-pressure systems now. But we must commit to modern farming. And a word to politics—we must move away from agitation and politicization. This objectivity and analytical approach that we Germans are known for—I want to use this small advertising break for our food supply, because the shelves were already getting closer and closer to empty.
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Hajo Schumacher12:51
Droughts are devastating, especially from a Berlin perspective—it's dramatic.
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Dirk Köckler13:00
We must commit to modern agriculture that thinks in diverse crop rotations and protects groundwater. We look forward to an objective discussion. With the EU regulation, about 80 percent have agreed, and we're happy to engage with the farmers. 120,000 of them think about farming models where they can supply plants according to their needs with the most modern technology—huge possibilities through smart farming. That's what we must implement, and we at AGRAVIS are happy to continue driving this development. The agricultural sector isn't resting on roses economically, but the cooperative structure helps families in rural areas get through this properly.
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Hajo Schumacher14:09
Do you have any questions for me? Anything from political Berlin? I think Claus Kleber has already summarized everything quite well.
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Dirk Köckler14:21
You know, Schumacher, I've always found you very agile. When you ride your road bike for an hour and a half to two hours before the storm front comes—that helps. Exercising really makes a difference. We walk a lot, of course. Social distancing is... but a bit of loneliness—I notice it's starting to show.
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Hajo Schumacher14:55
I could really use a beer again, getting together in close quarters. But who knows when we'll have that again. I'm not sure, but the summer holidays—I would really... Do you see the Bundesliga coming back?
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Dirk Köckler15:17
I was initially a bit annoyed because I thought, hey, you guys are hardly system-relevant. On the other hand, I think it's great what effort the Bundesliga is putting in to play Corona-compatible football—they have all sorts of doctors and experts. The Bundesliga is doing something that's currently missing a bit in our society: experimenting. We'll need to make experiments. There are maybe 100,000 recovered people—what about them? Can't they send their kids back to daycare when there's no risk to grandparents? We need to try working with certain relaxed options in certain areas, always voluntary with doctors present. But we have to get used to living with this virus as long as we don't have vaccines. And yes, you have to dare to experiment. When the footballers say 'let's try it'—wonderful.
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Hajo Schumacher16:24
That's a bit like Wolfgang Schäuble—I found what he said very interesting, bringing his own fate to the forefront.
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Dirk Köckler16:42
I think, as I said—as long as there's no vaccine—the current state isn't sustainable forever, not economically either. We must venture in. And everyone who says they want more freedom must also say how they envision the loosening.
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Hajo Schumacher17:05
Quite simply, time is up. I think the slogan 'drink beer' is something we're better at! I say a big thank you. Back to Münsterland—Dr. Dirk Köckler, CEO of AGRAVIS. Go ask him questions. We'll see each other in Münster.