Fruitbox

In the latest edition of Fruitbox, host Chris White speaks to Mike Knowles, editorial director for Europe at Fruitnet Media, and to Maura Maxwell, Fruitnet’s Latin America and Spain editor, about the ongoing challenges faced by the European fresh fruit and veg business as a result of the Covid crisis.

You may recall that Mike and Maura were the first ever guests on episode one of Fruitbox, which launched as a new format just as Europe was coming to terms with the full implications of the pandemic.

Having reported back then on some startling new features emerging in the retail and foodservice markets, this time they look forward and consider the longer-term implications for fresh produce suppliers and marketers as a result of trends such as online ordering, home delivery, meal kits and box schemes, and the continued depression in out-of-home eating.

They also give their take on what the changing market dynamics will mean further down the line for key fruit and veg suppliers across Europe. Demand has been high over the past six months but there are indications that the inevitable global recession is already beginning to bite, with worrying signs of less commercial breathing space for things like new product development, consumer engagement and value-added items at the top end of the market.

And then of course there’s Brexit…

Hosted by Chris White in London, Fruitbox now attracts a big audience across the global fruit and vegetable business that tunes 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.

David Marguleas is chief executive officer of Sun World International, a leading developer of new table grape and stonefruit varieties based in California, US.

With a portfolio of premium varieties now being grown in an increasing number of new places around the globe, the enormous opportunities emerging for the group in terms of those products’ considerable market potential are, Marguleas admits, accompanied by major new challenges on the production side.

Chief among those challenges is labour, be it the cost or indeed availability of workers to harvest and handle the fruit. “We’ve been struggling on these issues of availability of labour as well as increasing labour costs – particularly on these highly labour-intensive crops, like grapes, berries and stonefruit that are so dependent on the timely availability of people to harvest and produce them,” Marguleas explains. “But also the increasing cost in a number of places like the US, southern Europe and Australia, where the cost of these crops and actually getting them off the tree or the vine in a timely manner and into a coldstorage facility and through the supply chain is increasingly prohibitive.”

For Marguleas, one important response has to be to invest in more advanced technology. “In particular, we think [there is a] need for more significant automation – not just in the packhouses but certainly in the fields – and looking at robotic harvesting capabilities for many of these labour-intensive and perishable crops,” he tells Fruitbox host Chris White. “So we’re excited about expansion not only of new growing locations but also new technologies that enable that and also new varieties that allow for the production of varieties that previously couldn’t be grown in some areas.”

Hosted by Chris White in London, Fruitbox now attracts a big audience across the global fruit and vegetable business that tunes 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.

Dr Manuel Madrid has worked for some of the biggest businesses in the fresh produce industry – Syngenta, Driscoll’s, SanLucar and Chiquita to name four giants of the trade – but for more than a decade now he has been running his own consultancy, Fruit Profits.

Now, as he reveals in the latest episode of Fruitnet’s conversation series Fruitbox, he’s preparing to relocate from Valencia in Spain to a new base in Costa Rica, from where he will work with a number of fruit companies to help them grow and improve their business.

Top of his list, especially for those banana and pineapple companies in the region that face rising costs and diminishing returns, will be to help them identify new ways to secure more value in their supply chains – by introducing better techniques and technology, by switching from traditional crops to higher-value items like mangoes, papayas, avocados or berries, or perhaps even by exploring new markets in other parts of the world.

“I think we need to change the model for agriculture and change it to [be] much less dependent on inputs and more sustainable, which is also going to be less costly to produce,” he tells Fruitbox host Chris White. “That would be a win-win on the economic and sustainability side.”

Hosted by Chris White in London, Fruitbox now attracts a big audience across the global fruit and vegetable business that tunes in twice a 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.

Andriy Yarmak, economist at the United Nations FAO Investment Centre, spends a large part of his time monitoring developments in central Asia’s fresh produce business.

As Yarmak explains in the latest episode of Fruitbox, recent developments in countries like Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan reflect a growing interest in the region as a potentially global source of fruits and vegetables.

Last year, for example, German buyers purchased fresh table grapes and persimmons from this part of the world, while the UK took a small but significant volume of sweet cherries from Uzbekistan.

China too is actively looking to source more from central Asia, Yarmak notes, and even though Russia remains the dominant buyer in the region, it’s clear that these countries are going to play a bigger role in the international fruit and veg market in years to come.

“They’re important because they are among the top global players already, and many people don’t realise it,” Yarmak tells Fruitnet’s Chris White. “Uzbekistan stands out. It’s already among the largest producers of many different types of fruit and vegetable. For example, it’s the second-largest exporter of raisins in the world, the second-largest exporter of apricots in the world, and the third-largest global exporter of fresh apricots.”

What’s more, the quality and taste of products being grown in central Asia is “just amazing”, he adds. “They have a unique, very dry climate with a lot of sunny days, and it’s really hot in summer. But it’s also pretty cold in winter. I would compare Uzbekistan with Chile in some ways. It’s fairly remote from consumers, but it can reach them with a variety of products.”

Hosted by Chris White in London, Fruitbox now attracts a big audience across the global fruit and vegetable business that tunes in twice a 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.

Ksenia Gorovaya, managing director of St Petersburg-based Crisp Consulting, was in the eye of the storm in the summer of 2014, when Russia decided to ban a range of food imports – including fresh fruit and vegetables – from the EU, US, Australia, Norway and Canada.

Six years on, with the blockade still very much in place, she talks to Chris White about the ongoing impact of that decision on the country’s fresh produce import business, part of which has refocused on the former Soviet republics as well as places like Iran, and also on its local, domestic supply.

“Russia still imports quite a lot, but crops that can be grown locally are gaining more share on retail shelves,” she reveals in the latest episode of Fruitbox. “For example sufficiency for potato production is close to 95 per cent.”

Russia’s self-sufficiency in the commercial tomato sector, she adds, expanded from 25 per cent to 50 per cent. Within the past five years, about 1,000ha of greenhouses were launched both by the governmental and private investments, while retailers themselves have been investing in their own production.

“Magnit now aims to produce up to one-third of their tomato assortment in their own greenhouse facilities, which is an example of how rapidly it is going,” Gorovaya points out.

Hosted by Chris White in London, Fruitbox now attracts a big audience across the global fruit and vegetable business that tunes in twice a 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.

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

Uri Krieger’s roots go deep when it comes to developing new types of vegetable. Recently appointed as global head of vegetables and flowers R&D at Syngenta, he says he’s determined to use his background in plant breeding to overcome public scepticism about genetics and, even more crucially, to help growers produce more and better crops with greater efficiency.

“By 2050, the world population will be around 30 per cent higher, at about 10bn, so demand for food is expected to grow,” Krieger tells Fruitnet's Chris White in the latest edition of Fruitbox. “We’re going to have many more people and increased consumption.”

At the same time, producers need to know that the vegetables they grow in future can cope with changes in climate, he insists. “We have to find ways to grow our food more efficiently, [because] at the same time the amount of resources available, like water and soil, have either stayed flat or in some cases have been reduced.”

He adds: “Our challenge as an industry is to find a sustainable solution, to grow much more with far less.”

Hosted by Chris White in London, Fruitbox now attracts a big audience across the global fruit and vegetable business that tunes in twice a 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.

Episode 32 of Fruitbox is sponsored by Syngenta Vegetable Seeds.

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.

Phil Lempert believes many supermarkets were selling fresh fruit and vegetables wrong even before the coronavirus pandemic began. Now, with the crisis causing dramatic changes to the entire food distribution business, he thinks a radical overhaul of the supermarket format is coming, while foodservice outlets could see new opportunities to offer consumers an attractive alternative place to buy their fresh produce.

Lempert certainly knows a thing or two about what makes supermarkets tick, not to mention where they need to improve. Known to many as the SupermarketGuru, he makes regular appearances talking about grocery trends on CNN, NBC, ABC, Fox News and even the Oprah Winfrey show.

Speaking to Chris White in the latest episode of Fruitnet’s conversation series Fruitbox, Lempert casts a critical eye over supermarket fresh produce departments, explains where they can improve, and considers what the supermarket of the future will look like.

He also comments on the rise and predicted fall of retail’s answer to foodservice the groceraunt, the apparent arrival of a new distribution channel in the form of the so-called restaumart, the expansion of e-commerce and discount retailing, an expected increase in the popularity of scratch cooking, and the great upheaval being seen in the restaurant business as a result of Covid-19.

Hosted by Chris White in London, Fruitbox now attracts a big audience across the global fruit and vegetable business that tunes in twice a 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].

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

Barbara Bray MBE, a nutritionist and food safety consultant, noticed something strange going on as the coronavirus crisis began to take hold in Europe. Google data showed that searches for the words immunity and veg were much higher than usual.

In the latest episode of Fruitbox, Fruitnet’s series of conversations about the fresh fruit and vegetable business, Bray joins host Chris White to discuss the potential lasting effects of lockdown and the pandemic on our diets.

As consumers, for example, are we eating more healthy products, more unhealthy snack products, or in fact both? And what happens in the longer term if, as expected, spending power decreases? How accessible will healthy eating be for the estimated 820m people worldwide who are already undernourished or the two billion adults around the globe who are reckoned to be obese? And could concerns over future food supply cause ripples of tension in domestic politics or international trade?

“Before the pandemic we ate out a lot and ate a lot food on the go, so we weren’t really putting together meals that were well balanced. More people have had time to do that now, so we’re starting to reap the benefits of that,” Bray comments.

“The only problem is that, once we’re into that post-pandemic world, if we pick up our old routines we could slip back into old habits and start to lose some of those qualities we picked up about preparing healthy, balanced meals. I really hope there is a lot of drift into eating more fruits and vegetables., but I guess it’s inevitable there will be some slowdown.”

Hosted by Chris White in London, Fruitbox now attracts a big audience across the global fruit and vegetable business that tunes in twice a 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].

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

As the coronavirus outbreak pushes the world towards a very different kind of recession, Joe Shaw Roberts of consumer research company Kantar looks at how consumers are responding to the crisis and considers what lasting impact it is having on the way people buy fresh fruit and vegetables.

Speaking on the latest episode of Fruitbox, Fruitnet’s series of fresh produce industry conversations, Shaw Roberts explains how the pandemic is reshaping the market and driving important consumer trends to do with health, convenience, organics, local sourcing, discounting, online shopping and home delivery services.

Hosted by Chris White in London, Fruitbox now attracts a big audience across the global fruit and vegetable business that tunes in twice a 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].

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