Fruitbox

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 of these other requirements become less relevant. Taste is the best way for us as an industry to support that growth in consumption that we all want to see.”

To encourage more retailers to buy into that theory, Hoogstraten has invited a number of buyers to visit its production sites, where they can sample a range of great-tasting varieties – including some that are not yet available on the market.

Hosted by Chris White, Fruitbox attracts a big audience across the global fruit and vegetable business that tunes in every week to hear exclusive interviews and expert analysis.

Produced by Fruitnet Media International, the show is essential listening for everyone in the fresh produce industry.

To find out how you can tell your story on Fruitbox, email [email protected].

To learn about sponsorship and advertising opportunities, email [email protected].

Read the latest fresh produce industry news at www.fruitnet.com

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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 from around the world.”

Hosted by Chris White, Fruitbox attracts a big audience across the global fruit and vegetable business that tunes in every week to hear exclusive interviews and expert analysis.

Produced by Fruitnet Media International, the show is essential listening for everyone in the fresh produce industry.

To find out how you can tell your story on Fruitbox, email [email protected].

To learn about sponsorship and advertising opportunities, email [email protected].

Read the latest fresh produce industry news at www.fruitnet.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 expanded its lemon production outside its native Argentina in recent years, adding sources in Uruguay, South Africa and Peru.

And having consolidated its position as a dependable counter-seasonal supplier out of the Southern Hemisphere, the next decade could potentially see it become a global source of the fruit.

“The second stage we are working on is being closer to the consumer,” Hilbert reveals. “Now we think that the power is shifting and we need to be very close to the consumer to give [them] a very good, fresh product all year round. Some retailers really need that.”

With commercial offices already established in Seville, Valencia and Shanghai, and with another due to open soon in Philadelphia, proximity could soon lead to production.

“We need to be close to the customers there, and if they need us to produce in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s definitely something we can work on.”

Hosted by Chris White, Fruitbox attracts a big audience across the global fruit and vegetable business that tunes in every week to hear exclusive interviews and expert analysis.

Produced by Fruitnet Media International, the show is essential listening for everyone in the fresh produce industry.

To find out how you can tell your story on Fruitbox, email [email protected].

To learn about sponsorship and advertising opportunities, email [email protected].

Read the latest fresh produce industry news at www.fruitnet.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 airfreight.

And despite a simultaneous decline in the number of passenger flights circumventing the earth, he says it’s also apparent that airlines are working to free up new space for cargo to take to the skies.

“It’s been a very challenging 18 months. Obviously it started with 95 per cent of all international passenger flights suspended. So we had to look elsewhere, mostly at charter airlines, for cargo capacity,” he recalls.

In effect, the new normal for airfreight may well involve a larger volume of temperature- and time-sensitive cargo capacity being in the sky.

“We were very fortunate that the airlines started to put their thinking caps on, and started converting passenger planes to cargo planes. So that really helped a big deal.”

During his 15-minute chat with Fruitnet’s Chris White, Wong also considers the ongoing effect of fuel price inflation, the potential for new models of electrified transportation, and the importance of making supply chain temperature control even more visible.

Hosted by Chris White, Fruitbox attracts a big audience across the global fruit and vegetable business that tunes in every week to hear exclusive interviews and expert analysis.

Produced by Fruitnet Media International, the show is essential listening for everyone in the fresh produce industry.

To find out how you can tell your story on Fruitbox, email [email protected].

To learn about sponsorship and advertising opportunities, email [email protected].

Read the latest fresh produce industry news at www.fruitnet.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 local artists, but of at least equal importance has been the project’s emphasis on restoring a sense of joy to the shopping experience, with apparent great success.

“Design is often seen as purely decorative, as something they can apply to the skeleton of a business,” he explains in the latest episode of Fruitbox, Fruitnet’s series of conversations about the fresh produce industry.

“But we get in there before that skeleton is determined. We apply the decoration, but that is really only secondary to what we primarily do, which is to review how to make things work better, how to function better, and, in the case of fruit and vegetables, how to look better.”

For Landini, the way fruit and vegetables are displayed in supermarkets doesn’t always achieve the best possible result in terms of engaging customers. “Often they are covered up by facetious, thematic design that is completely unnecessary, very expensive and not very well lit,” he argues. We always start with the display and the lighting, then see what money we have left over. Not the other way around.”

Beyond the visual aspect and superficial experience, the functionality of supermarkets needs improvement, Landini says. “The thing that supermarkets have forgotten is that they started as markets,” he says. “They sell largely the same product and can therefore be exciting, chaotic, wonderful, noisy, shouty places.”

But in many cases, he suggests, they have become operationally led and largely sanitised. “They don’t make use of the valuable assets which they have. They need reinventing. Somebody needs to get the grown-ups in the room and have a jolly good talking to them to see if they can’t actually reach something which is a bit more sensible.”

During his conversation with Fruitnet’s Chris White, Landini goes on to discuss what supermarkets can do to improve their fruit and vegetable offer, as well as the more fundamental changes to the way we will shop for food in future.

Hosted by Chris White, Fruitbox attracts a big audience across the global fruit and vegetable business that tunes in every week to hear exclusive interviews and expert analysis.

Produced by Fruitnet Media International, the show is essential listening for everyone in the fresh produce industry.

For more information about Landini Associates, visit www.landiniassociates.com.

To find out how you can tell your story on Fruitbox, email [email protected].

To learn about sponsorship and advertising opportunities, email [email protected].

Read the latest fresh produce industry news at www.fruitnet.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 arrival of a new, direct shipping service between Tangier and Poole opened a quicker trade route for fresh produce.The United Seaways link, which has been dubbed a ‘Brexit-busting’ service because it circumvents the traditional truck option up through Spain and France, will carry lots of fruit and vegetables into the southern English port. Crucially, it promises to cut journey times from six by road to less than three.This episode of Fruitbox was brought to you by Morocco FoodEx.Hosted by Chris White, Fruitbox attracts a big audience across the global fruit and vegetable business that tunes in every week to hear exclusive interviews and expert analysis.Produced by Fruitnet Media International, the show is essential listening for everyone in the fresh produce industry.To find out how you can tell your story on Fruitbox, email [email protected] learn about sponsorship and advertising opportunities, email [email protected] the latest fresh produce industry news at www.fruitnet.com

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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 recorded significant growth.”

But Asia’s emerging commercial opportunity is not just about China, he added. When Asia Fruit Logistica returns, he pointed out, that multiplicity of markets is likely to support further dramatic growth in the produce arena.

“There are another 20 markets that play a significant role in the trade, and that’s also at Asia Fruit Logistica,” he said. “It’s exactly this combination that makes Asia Fruit Logistica so special in the end. It’s a truly pan-Asian platform connecting all the important players in Asia. That’s what makes it unique and indispensable, whether you are based in China or wherever in Asia.”

The countdown to Asia Fruit Logistica 2022 has already begun. It will take place on 7-9 September 2022 at AsiaWorld-Expo in Hong Kong.

Hosted by Chris White, Fruitbox attracts a big audience across the global fruit and vegetable business that tunes in every week to hear exclusive interviews and expert analysis.

Produced by Fruitnet Media International, the show is essential listening for everyone in the fresh produce industry.

To find out how you can tell your story on Fruitbox, email [email protected].

To learn about sponsorship and advertising opportunities, email [email protected].

Read the latest fresh produce industry news at www.fruitnet.com

For more details about Asia Fruit Logistica, visit www.asiafruitlogistica.com

For more information about Asiafruit Congress, visit www.asiafruitcongress.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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’ve done a very good job of putting something better in front of the consumer every single year – in terms of better-eating varieties and fresher fruit.”

But for Regan, it’s not just about taste. “It’s the whole experience of eating a berry,” she argues. “For me, what you really want is that quintessential English, balanced strawberry flavour. Not just sweet, but all of those aromatics there as well.”

One noticeable consumer trend for berries is that they are now a more common sight at breakfast time.

And having also observed a dramatic spike in interest around home baking – especially during lockdown – Regan says she was keen for her company to offer the market strawberries that required no cutting.

So Hugh Lowe Farms now supplies a product called Mini Berries, a line of smaller strawberries that is more reminiscent of the fruit seen in French pâtisseries.

“The specification is smaller, but they are actually very snackable and attractive to children,” she observes. “There’s more than one way to eat a strawberry.”

Hosted by Chris White, Fruitbox attracts a big audience across the global fruit and vegetable business that tunes in every week to hear exclusive interviews and expert analysis.

Produced by Fruitnet Media International, the show is essential listening for everyone in the fresh produce industry.

To find out how you can tell your story on Fruitbox, email [email protected].

To learn about sponsorship and advertising opportunities, email [email protected].

Read the latest fresh produce industry news at www.fruitnet.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 demanding more information, and greater access, but we’re building up these pictures to help customers understand that we’re trying to do the right thing by them,” he argues.

“Yes, it can be quite challenging for suppliers and producers, but there are reasons for that. These are things that customers care about.”

Hosted by Chris White in London, Fruitbox attracts a big audience across the global fruit and vegetable business that tunes in every week to hear exclusive interviews and expert analysis.

Produced by Fruitnet Media International, the show is essential listening for everyone in the fresh produce industry.

To find out how you can tell your story on Fruitbox, email [email protected].

To learn about sponsorship and advertising opportunities, email [email protected].

Read the latest fresh produce industry news at www.fruitnet.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 asking more and more of their suppliers in terms of knowing precisely where their products originate, these days the stakes are even higher.

That’s why AgriPlace is helping companies move to safer and more sustainable practices, by using digital systems to collect information automatically and keep it accessible.

“We help companies ensure the product fulfils the customer requirements, while saving them time and cost by not having to send endless emails and filling spreadsheets and ERP systems manually,” he says.

Hosted by Chris White in London, Fruitbox attracts a big audience across the global fruit and vegetable business that tunes in every week to hear exclusive interviews and expert analysis.

Produced by Fruitnet Media International, the show is essential listening for everyone in the fresh produce industry.

To find out how you can tell your story on Fruitbox, email [email protected].

To learn about sponsorship and advertising opportunities, email [email protected].

Read the latest fresh produce industry news at www.fruitnet.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.