Fruitnet

Many of the world’s leading tomato suppliers have invested heavily in better-tasting varieties, but the widespread perception that tomatoes ‘don’t really taste of anything’ seems to persist. Why is that? For Synnøve Johansson, business development manager at Belgian cooperative Hoogstraten, the fact that consumers appreciate tastier products hasn’t yet altered the received wisdom among most supermarket buyers in the mainstream market. Simply put, more investment is needed to create better-tasting supply, and more support is needed from retailers in particular to convey that quality. “A lot has changed in the category, but there are still tasteless tomatoes in the category,” she tells Fruitnet’s Chris White in the latest episode of Fruitbox. The value of tomatoes that taste better is clear, Johansson adds: “Taste equals repeat purchase. Yes, as consumers we want local produce, we would like it to be organic, sustainably produced, sustainably packaged, and cheap. “However, when we know it tastes good, all o

Fruit Logistica has been postponed from February to April, a point in time when the world’s leading fresh produce trade fair should be safer, not to mention more accessible. Kai Mangelberger, project director of Fruit Logistica, believes the decision was a necessary one. “if you look at all the forecasts and you listen to all the experts, then it’s clear that April is a safer date than February,” he tells Chris White in the latest episode of Fruitbox. “In addition, we also have the benefit of hindsight: we know what happened last year… We already have all the necessary hygiene and safety protocols in place. They will apply in April too,” he adds. Mangelberger also believes that “many more” visitors will be able to attend Fruit Logistica in the European spring. “We expect restrictions will be different to those that apply today,” he suggests. “And I am very optimistic that by next April more vaccines will have been approved by the German authorities. That means Fruit Logistica can be open to more people fr

Lemons have been an undoubted sales success for the fresh produce industry in the past few years. But for Juan Martín Hilbert, fresh fruit commercial director at the world’s largest lemon producer, San Miguel, it is not yet time to start cutting slices for a round of celebratory drinks. “There has been a big jump in the consumption of lemons, but the supply is catching up and sometimes overtaking demand in some months of the year. That’s a challenge for the industry,” he observes during the latest edition of Fruitbox. “It’s still low if you compare it with other items. Consumption per capita in the US is only 2kg per year, whereas in Europe it’s more than 3.4kg.” But there will be opportunities to sell even more, he agrees, provided the marketing helps consumers understand the fruit’s potential benefits. “My dream is that every person in the world drinks lemon water in the morning,” he says. “A lot of people I know are getting used to this idea and that drive is helping consumption.” San Miguel has expand

The importance of air cargo services to the global fresh produce business has certainly taken off in the past 18 months as the Covid-19 pandemic has landed ocean container shipping networks with a major circulation problem. As Orlando Wong explains in the latest episode of Fruitnet’s conversation series Fruitbox, a sharp increase in demand for consumer goods in the world’s major markets has led to logjams in ports that where the traffic previously flowed freely. “The last I checked there were about 64 vessels waiting to come into dock at [the Port of] Long Beach,” he reveals. “The situation has really not improved. The container yard is quadruple stacked, [whereas] normally it’s only double stacked. Essentially, Long Beach is now like a storage dock. There is no room to work around, and the infrastructure needs to be expanded in a big way.” Wong is CEO of perishable produce logistics specialist Able Freight, and from his headquarters in Los Angeles he can see firsthand the pandemic’s impact on both sea and

If you were to design the perfect supermarket, what would it look like? So the story goes, at one point during Aldi Australia’s recent network redesign, one of the group’s two managing directors was asked what he thought of some proposed store visuals. “It doesn’t matter what I think,” he reportedly replied. "Just show me the data." More important, it seems, was the question of how the stores would function beneath their newly refreshed outward appearance. For Mark Landini, the creative director of Sydney-based company Landini Associates who helped Aldi Australia reinvent itself, it’s not definitely just about design. His job is to come up with new store concepts that don’t just look good, but work well too. And for a number of customers, including Aldi, Esselunga, Marks & Spencer and Loblaws, it is a strategy that seems to be working. Over the past three years, Landini has helped Aldi Australia to revamp all of its 650 stores. Each store now has an eye-catching, unique look that incorporates work by loc

Fresh fruit and vegetables from Morocco are not new to the UK, but the potential market opportunity for its exporters following Brexit certainly appears greater. What better time then to encourage more trade between the two countries, especially with the UK no longer trading from within the European single market. That’s certainly the view of Mehdi El Alami, director of export promotion and development at Morocco FoodEx. To capitalise on that opportunity, his agency has just launched its first ever food and drink export campaign in the UK, as it seeks to raise awareness of the quality and range of Moroccan food exports. “We now have the possibility of expanding our quota, which was limited by our trade agreement with the EU,” he explains. “And [we have] the capacity to produce them in total compliance with the specificities of the UK market. This makes Morocco a new big player in the international fresh produce market, but competition is the name of the game in globalisation.” Earlier this month, the arr

As with so many industries, the pandemic brought the world of trade exhibitions to its knees over the past 18 months. There is still another year to go before Asia Fruit Logistica, Asia’s biggest and most international fresh fruit and vegetable trade event, can open its doors again. But for the show’s new executive director, David Axiotis, the fundamental strength of the business itself remains a source of optimism and confidence. Axiotis was speaking to Fruitnet’s Chris White during Asiafruit Congress, which brought together more than 1,700 people from over 80 countries earlier this week for two days of online insight and networking all about Asia’s fresh produce business. Firstly, he pointed to the huge opportunity presented by China. “It simply is a massive market for suppliers from Asia and all over the world,” he commented. “According to the latest statistics, China imported more than US$8bn worth of fruit in the first half of 2021, up 24 per cent year on year. Cherries, fresh grapes, and citrus all r

Smaller strawberries could meet new consumer demand for ultra-convenient, healthy foods and mimic the kind of success that blueberries have had in recent years as a popular snack item. That’s according to Marion Regan, managing director of Hugh Lowe Farms, a major supplier of strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries based in Kent, south-east England. As she explains in the latest edition of Fruitnet’s conversation series Fruitbox, investment in better-eating and more productive varieties has underpinned the category’s commercial success over the past two decades, and helped it become the largest single product group in the UK fresh produce market in terms of sales. Crucially, she says, good-tasting fruit has been a key ingredient in the remarkable rise of fresh berries over the past couple of decades. “Berries are just a wonderful product,” she tells Chris White during a recent visit to the farm. “They tap into the zeitgeist of people who want healthy, convenient, highly snackable fruit. And I think we

The supermarkets’ rapid rise has been accompanied by a dramatic increase in the amount of data that flows along their supply chains. But as Tesco’s technical manager for salads Mike Corbett explains in the latest episode of Fruitbox, all of that information helps to reassure consumers that the food they buy has been sourced in a safe, secure, ethical and sustainable manner. “The demand for more data and more insight has steadily risen [over the last 30 years],” Corbett explains. “There are lots of ways and means of capturing data and demonstrating to consumers that we are being ethical, we are trying to be sustainable, we are trying to be traceable, we do care about provenance. A huge amount of data has to be captured to demonstrate our credentials.” For some in the business, it might seem that retailers ever-increasing demand for information is excessive and perhaps even intrusive. But as Corbett observes, efforts have been made to reduce the administrative burden on suppliers. “We’re continually demand

What does ‘managing your data better’ actually mean? For Nico Broersen Junior of Dutch startup AgriPlace, it can be something as simple as reducing the volume of emails you send and receive, or minimising the number of times you enter information into a spreadsheet. Even for tech-savvy people in the fruit and veg business, it can be hard to really understand what data management really involves in practice. But as Broersen warns in the latest episode of Fruitnet’s conversation series Fruitbox, fresh produce companies are storing up trouble for themselves by hoarding crucial information in “dangerously large spreadsheets”, “endless folders” and increasingly large email databases. “This makes it really hard to see what is going on in your supply chain, and also to identify risks,” he explains. “When a risk occurs – for example a producers loses its certification – you want to be able to see through which packhouses and suppliers a product has arrived, to avoid risk now or later on.” And with retailers askin

Artificial intelligence can now be used to predict the future with unprecedented accuracy. That’s good news for companies in the fruit and vegetable business, where the products’ sheer unpredictability in terms of yield and shelf-life remains the industry’s biggest inherent challenge. Michele Dall’Olio, chief operating officer Fresh4cast, says companies have started to unlock the big potential that AI offers. In particular, he says, greater predictability means greater profitability. “Being able to see into the future, and have a good understanding of what happened in the past, brings you multiple benefits,” he tells Chris White during the latest episode of Fruitnet’s conversation series Fruitbox. Fresh4cast has pioneered the introduction of AI-based yield forecasting software over the past decade, and in doing so has enabled suppliers of items like berries and tomatoes to fine-tune their operations by making them more predictable. “If you think about the medium to long-term time horizon, this can help y

Experience, instinct, maybe even just gut feeling – all of these things play an important part in helping fresh produce companies make strategic decisions. But in a world where computers are able to collect and even interpret an increasing volume of potentially useful information relating to almost every single link in fruit and vegetable supply chains, perhaps nowadays a more analytical, data-focused approach to business makes more sense. Giles Barker is chief executive of KisanHub, a company that has developed data analysis software specifically for the fresh produce sector. As Barker explains in the latest episode of Fruitbox, this platform allows produce companies to collect their data in one place and to analyse it, which apparently helps them boost their margins and improve relationships with customers. “Fresh produce has been lagging behind other industries and I think it’s time to move it forward,” he says. But the idea isn’t to replace the expertise that lies in the people who run fresh produce c

Finding a safe and sustainable way to extend the shelf-life of fruit and vegetables represents an important priority for anyone in the business of selling fresh produce. That’s why shelf-life extension technologies like SmartFresh, first launched around two decades ago to great acclaim in the apple business, have been so instrumental in driving up quality and reducing waste. Now, having had a major impact not just on apple supply chains but also on items like kiwifruit, plums, and pears, SmartFresh developer AgroFresh is introducing VitaFresh Botanicals, a set of edible, plant-based coatings that promise to have the same impact on other products such as citrus, avocados and mangoes. As Carles Doménech Rodríguez, the group’s global coatings and disinfectants product lead, explains in the latest episode of Fruitbox, the new range is an important step forward in terms of extending freshness. “VitaFresh gives retailers a much stronger opportunity to market the best-quality products, and also to improve consum

Fresh fruit and vegetables have a central role to play in safeguarding the health of consumers all over the world. That’s the view of Inci Dannenberg, Head of Global Vegetable Seeds Strategic Marketing for the Crop Science division of Bayer. Speaking during Fruitnet’s World of Fresh Ideas, a free virtual event for the international fresh produce business which takes place on 26-27 May, Dannenberg outlined various sustainability challenges that the world’s food system faces. She referred in particular to climate change, limited natural resources, a growing population with diverse nutritional needs, and people’s varying abilities and opportunities to access fresh fruit and veg. She also underlined the potential for the produce business to work together and drive positive change. “There has never been a more important time for innovation and collaboration to tackle these challenges,” she commented. “Fruits and vegetables are an essential part of our nutritional needs as the World Health Organisation recomm

For Gilad Sadan, the term ‘box fresh’ has a real resonance. Not just for the fruit and vegetable products housed in the carefully designed packaging his Melbourne-based consultancy Navi Co Global helps to create, but for all kinds of consumer goods – including a newly delivered pair of green Adidas trainers (“sneakers!”) made from recycled materials. And in a world where environmental concerns mean that packaging’s place in the global supply chain is under more scrutiny than ever, the word ‘sustainability’ also has added significance for Sadan. As he explains in the latest episode of Fruitnet’s conversation series Fruitbox, buying things that are marketed as sustainable – be it fresh produce or indeed footwear – has emerged over as a way for people to show support for something they believe to be important. “I think what we’re seeing now is that sustainability is becoming something that consumers are talking about and engaging with, or they want to do the right thing as far as they are concerned,” he says.

Long distances can always be overcome in the fresh produce trade. Juan Gonzalez Pita has proven that beyond doubt since he co-founded import-export firm Salix Fruits around ten years ago. From small beginnings in his home country of Argentina, the group has become a key player in several of the Northern Hemisphere’s fresh produce markets. At the time, together with co-founder Luis Elortondo, Gonzalez was encouraged by what he describes as untapped opportunities for growers in lots of emerging markets, such as the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America. “People were not paying attention to this,” he tells Chris White in the latest episode of Fruitnet’s conversation series Fruitbox, “so I just focused there, and relying on technology first we started with email marketing campaigns.” Operating from a tiny office in Buenos Aires, the universal accessibility of new online platforms was instrumental in the company’s initial expansion. But in contrast with previous advances in global communications like the telep

David Hughes, known to many as Dr Food, has just been handed a hypothetical shopping trolley stuffed with several billion dollars, then asked where in the food industry he wants to invest the money. “Where would I put it? High-value horticulture,” he replies. “I would pick the highest value crop that I can find, and one that is coming over the horizon now at pace.” Listeners to this week’s episode of Fruitbox can discover the single horticultural product that Hughes, Emeritus Professor of Food Marketing at Imperial College London and a renowned food business expert, regards as the most promising. That revelation comes at the end of a fascinating discussion about the way we eat and drink, focusing on areas relevant to the fresh fruit and vegetable business like health, sustainability, commoditisation, pricing, and the recent dramatic rise in the number of different retail and distribution models. “The big change, which is not Covid-19 related, is the increasing number of routes to the consumer,” Hughes com

Even in Asia, a market with a deserved reputation for being at the cutting edge of grocery ecommerce, the past year has seen major advances in the development of this new retail arena. That’s the view of Ruth McLennan, commercial director for south-east Asia at Dairy Farm, one of Asia’s largest food retailers with annual sales of more than US$12bn. “Like all markets, the pandemic has brought online to the forefront for both customers and retailers alike,” she tells Chris White in the latest episode of Fruitnet’s weekly conversation series Fruitbox. “In Asia, the progress is mixed. Some markets have established online businesses and some others are quite new to the arena. Online is very progressed in Hong Kong, China and Singapore, so in some of our other markets, such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Cambodia, this channel has seen a meteoric rise as customers shift their shopping habits.” With growth in online grocery shopping as high as 20 per cent in some of those countries, there have been rapid changes to

Shopping for fruit and veg may soon be a whole lot easier if Amazon’s much-heralded ‘just walk out’ technology becomes a common feature of grocery retailing. The ecommerce giant opened its first (and indeed second) Amazon Fresh store outside North America in London earlier this month. But what are the implications of this new venture for the way we will shop for food in future? Retail journalist Miya Knights says the difference is primarily about the shoppers themselves. “It takes the labour away from the customer in terms of having to queue, pick your own goods, bag your own goods, scan them in some cases, then pay for them yourself.” What’s even more revolutionary, she argues, is the technological barrier to entry. “Amazon has kind of said it will pick and choose who it allows into the store, because you have to download the Amazon Fresh app and download a barcode to gain entry. I don’t there are that many retailers who would open a store and then say it’s not open to everybody.” Knights is director and

Despite its name, InFarm’s roots are very much in the market. In February 2021, the Berlin-based urban farming startup announced the creation of new growing centres to supply fresh produce to the likes of Edeka, Lidl and Kaufland. Starting in Germany and extending very soon to the UK, Netherlands, France, Switzerland, US and Canada, the move represents a step change in its operations, scaling up a business model that until now has focused on smaller, plug-and-grow units within retail stores themselves. Now, as demand for locally grown produce continues to rise, the company is preparing go beyond the 1,500 in-store farms already installed and ramp up production wherever the market demands it. And with total venture capital funding of more than US$400m to date, it’s certainly shaping up to be one of the world’s most hotly tipped vertical growing startups. “We are not building farms,” explains InFarm’s vice-president of corporate sales Daniel Kats, speaking on the latest episode of Fruitbox. “We’re taking fa