Sir Charles Godfray gave this year's prestigious City Food & Drink Lecture in London. He talks to Chris White about how the food system needs to change to adapt to the challenges of population growth and climate change. It's good news for our business of fresh fruits and vegetables.Fruitbox is essential listening for everyone in the fresh produce b…

Clemengold founder Abs van Rooyen talks to Chris White about how the South African citrus brand has gone global. Its development has lessons for produce branding in future. Fruitbox is essential listening for everyone in the fresh produce business. Every episode attracts a large global audience that tunes in to hear exclusive interviews and analysi…

Carlos Bonet and José Vottero of FRESH FRUIT-X talk to Chris White about how the growth of supermarkets in places like Vietnam and Malaysia is powering the growth of their new business focused on fresh fruit and vegetable marketing in South East Asia. Fruitbox is essential listening for everyone in the fresh produce business. Every episode attracts…

Driscoll's Europe managing director Russell Allwell talks to Chris White about the steps for its new acquisition in the UK and the ongoing growth opportunities for berries. Fruitbox is essential listening for everyone in the fresh produce business. Every episode attracts a large global audience that tunes in to hear exclusive interviews and analysi…

Yuyuh Sukmana, the Jakarta-based South-East Asia regional manager for Vanguard International. talks to Chris White about the prospects for South-East Asia in view of the slowdown in demand in China. Fruitbox is essential listening for everyone in the fresh produce business. Every episode attracts a large global audience that tunes in to hear exclus…

Matt Palise of Red Rich Fruits talks to Chris White about how a fresh produce business deals with the high costs that go with marketing fresh fruits and vegetables in Australia.Fruitbox is essential listening for everyone in the fresh produce business. Every episode attracts a large global audience that tunes in to hear exclusive interviews and ana…

Anne Dingstad, the newly-appointed chief executive of Saga Robotics, talks to Chris White about the future of automation in fresh fruits and vegetables. Fruitbox is essential listening for everyone in the fresh produce business. Every episode attracts a large global audience that tunes in to hear exclusive interviews and analysis about fresh fruits…

Asia Fruit Logistica and Asiafruit Congress are back: Chris White talks to David Axiotis and John Hey about the in-person return of Asia'a favourite fresh produce event to Bangkok from 2-4 November 2022.Fruitbox is essential listening for everyone in the fresh produce business. Every episode attracts a large global audience that tunes in to hear ex…

Kristian Moeller of GlobalGAP talks to Chris White about the latest improvements to the world's most widely used system to certify fresh fruit and vegetables.Fruitbox is essential listening for everyone in the fresh produce business. Every episode attracts a large global audience that tunes in to hear exclusive interviews and analysis about fresh f…

Marc Peyres of Blue Whale talks Chris White about the major challenges facing growers and exporters of apples and pears in Europe and the rest of the world.Fruitbox is essential listening for everyone in the fresh produce business. Every episode attracts a large global audience that tunes in to hear exclusive interviews and analysis about fresh fru…

World Apple & Pear Association president Dominik Wozniak and secretary general Philippe Binard talk to Chris White about the coming season for apples and pears in Europe and plans for World Apple Day this 15 November.Fruitbox is essential listening for everyone in the fresh produce business. Every episode attracts a large global audience that tunes…

In this sponsored episode of Fruitbox, Matt Holland of TIVE talks to Chris White about how supply chain disruption now requires new technical solutions that improve transparency and allow for immediate fixes.Fruitbox is essential listening for everyone in the fresh produce business. Every episode attracts a large global audience that tunes in to he…

Bostjan Novak of Evrosad Trznica talks to Chris White about how Slovenia's biggest apple marketer has developed a new retail outlet to sell a wide range of locally-grown fresh fruits and vegetables. Fruitbox is essential listening for everyone in the fresh produce business. Every episode attracts a large global audience that tunes in to hear exclus…

Rob Harrison of Britain's largest berry business Berry Gardens talks to Chris White about the short-term challenges and long-term opportunities in the UK berry market, plus what to expect from Driscoll's' deal to buy into the business. Fruitbox is essential listening for everyone in the fresh produce business. Every episode attracts a large global …

Johnathan Sutton of global avocado grower and marketer Westfalia talks to Chris White about how sustainability is playing a much more central role in the marketing of avocados.Fruitbox is essential listening for everyone in the fresh produce business. Every episode attracts a large global audience that tunes in to hear exclusive interviews and anal…

Margriet Looije of Dutch tomato grower and marketer Looye Kwekers talks to Chris White about how focusing on quality and taste has helped grow sales. Recorded live at Global Tomato Congress in The Hague on 24 May 2022.Fruitbox is essential listening for everyone in the fresh produce business. Every episode attracts a large global audience that tune…

Chris White talks to Iryna Kukhtina of Ukraine Berries Association who explains how business continues despite Russia's invasion of her country and how the world can help by buying fresh fruits and vegetables from Ukraine.Fruitbox is essential listening for everyone in the fresh produce business. Every episode attracts a large global audience that …

Chris White talks to City Harvest London's head of food Dan McAlpine about how fresh fruit and vegetable businesses can help feed people in need in Western Europe's biggest city. Fruitbox is essential listening for everyone in the fresh produce business. Every episode attracts a large global audience that tunes in to hear exclusive interviews and a…

What impact is Russia's invasion of Ukraine having on fresh produce markets around the world? Chris White talks to Fabio Zanesco of ViP, Juan Gonzalez Pita of Salix Fruits, and Justin Chadwick of South Africa's Citrus Growers Association in this specially extended edition of Fruitbox.Af Fruitnet Media

FDOC global marketing manager Samantha Lane tells Chris White about the comeback for Florida grapefruit. Fruitbox is produced by Fruitnet Media International. Each episode attracts a global fresh produce business audience that tunes in to hear exclusive interviews and expert analysis. Fruitbox is essential listening for everyone in the fresh produc…

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 …

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 …

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 th…

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 consu…

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, i…

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 E…

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 funda…

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 Engl…

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, ethica…

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 u…

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 compan…

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 cha…

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 q…

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 busi…

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 material…

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,…

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 horiz…

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.“…

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 …

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 represe…

Anyone familiar with upmarket British supermarket chain Marks & Spencer might not expect one of its star fruit and veg performers over the past year to be a two-kilo bag of potatoes.That’s not to say it has stopped innovating at the premium end of the market – something proven by the launch of an easy-peeler grapefruit, or the three million home de…

During what has been a tumultuous and unpredictable four years for the US politically and socially, it’s fair to say that life in the country’s fresh fruit and vegetable business has been a little less uncertain.However, as in most parts of the world, the impact of Covid-19 has been considerable. In particular, the closure of foodservice outlets ha…

Covid continues to cast a long shadow over the European fresh produce business.In the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, trade association Freshfel Europe set about assessing the impact of the crisis on Europe’s fruit and vegetable trade.Now, after nearly a year of unprecedented disruption to several parts of the produce supply network – from pro…

How has Covid-19 changed our attitudes as consumers? And what will happen next as a result?Two hugely important questions for any company, but especially so for those involved in the fruit and vegetables business, which has seen massive spikes in demands as well as severe shocks to some of its supply chains as a result of the pandemic.Ben Page, chi…

To say that Christmas means a great deal for dried fruit and nut suppliers is like saying chocolate companies quite enjoy Easter.In fact, for Europe’s largest dried fruit and nut company, Importaco, the festive period usually contributes around 40 per cent of its total annual sales.But as the group’s chief executive Toño Pons explains in the latest…

Raffaele Benedetti thinks grading technology could soon be able to pick out the best fruit according to its nutritional qualities, a development that could open the door to products being marketed on the basis of specific health benefits.“I think the next step will be in this direction,” he explains in the latest episode of Fruitbox. “The first ste…

Change is in the air as the UK prepares to cut loose from its trading alliance with the EU. When it comes to banana imports, however, it’s likely to be business as usual from 1 January 2021, even if the country’s importers remain wary of potential disruption to the labour provision and logistical services on which they depend.“That’s where we’re pr…

The looming possibility of a no-deal Brexit might be a major headache for some in the fresh produce business, but for the commercial director of one of Belgium’s largest fruit exporters it’s uncertainty, rather than the probable impact, that is causing most concern.In late November, as BFV’s Marc Evrard awaited the outcome of talks between London a…

Investing in Peruvian horticulture is very much a safe bet, despite the political unrest seen in the country over the past couple of weeks.That’s according to Steve Magami, co-founder and chairman of Agrovision, who was speaking to Chris White in the latest episode of Fruitnet’sweekly conversation series Fruitbox.Based in Lima and Los Angeles, Agro…

The importance of Asian markets to Peruvian fresh produce companies continues to grow, according to Mario Ocharan, export director of the country’s foreign trade and tourism body PromPerú.Speaking to Chris White during the latest episode of Fruitbox, Fruitnet’s series of conversations about the fresh produce business, Ocharan underlines the growing…