3 - 4 September 2025

Lelystad
The Netherlands

Erika den Daas joined Meijer Potato as Managing Director in 2017. With 35 years of experience in the crop input side of agribusiness both within multinational companies and medium-sized companies, Erika started her career in fertilizers (Everis and BASF), followed by crop protection (Syngenta and Certis Europe), service provider in seed enhancement Incotec, and now in potato breeding, at the base of crop produce itself. Leading theme in her career is about how to embrace challenges and translate them into opportunities. How can we produce more with less input in more sustainable manner, whilst meeting market demands.

Kristof Wallays completed his studies as a bio-engineer in 2003. Kristof’s father, Antoon Wallays, was one of the co-founders of Agristo.

Kristof joined Agristo in 2003 when the company completed the acquisition of a production facility for frozen potato products in Tilburg, the Netherlands. For 8 years Kristof was plant manager of this production facility. In this role he managed to upgrade, modernize and expand the production lines in Tilburg, making it into an innovative production facility. In 2011 Agristo acquired a production facility in Nazareth which was led by Kristof until 2016, when he became operations manager for the Group.

In 2018, Kristof became COO of the Agristo group. After 7 years as COO Kristof moved on and is now Chief Global Expansion, Innovation & Sustainability. In this role Kristof lays out strategic directions for the international expansion of Agristo and follows evolutions in the global potato processing industry from close-by.

With over three decades of leadership across the Asia-Pacific, Soundararadjane S. is reshaping the future of Indian agriculture — combining strategic vision with a deep, on-the-ground understanding of smallholder realities.

As the driving force behind HyFarm at HyFun Foods, he is leading an ambitious mission: to scale the smallholder network from 7,000 to 30,000 farmers and deliver 1 million metric tonnes of climate-resilient, processing-grade potatoes by 2028.

His model is grounded in impact and innovation — fusing regenerative agriculture, digital enablement, and science-led practices to build a farmer-centric, globally competitive Agri-ecosystem. Under his leadership, HyFarm is not just growing crops — it is catalysing India's rise as a global leader in sustainable agriculture and rural transformation.

Soundararadjane’s journey is defined by scale, strategy, and purpose — empowering smallholders, transforming value chains, and repositioning India at the forefront of the global agribusiness landscape.