Another year, another trip to Berlin! Our Fruit Logistica team for 2024 was;
Andrew Fitzmaurice, CEO
Tom Edmondson-Matthews, Associate Director, Commercial
Lucy Renner, Team Manager, Commercial
Alex Marshall, Associate Director, Technical
And here’s what they had to say about their trip…
The show – Fruit Logistica itself – is still in rude health. It will be interesting to see what the official footfall figures are, but it felt busy. There is always the risk that you can spend more time walking than talking but it wasn’t the case this year.
And, despite stands being busy with customers and growers, people were very hospitable and made time to see us.
It’s great to spend time meeting new people and seeing old familiar faces. We can imbibe cultures and understand values a lot more readily in the flesh. And it’s the same for hearing about the challenges that we face in our sector.
The show really puts into focus the size of the industry and some of the sectors that support it, for example, machinery, as FPJ puts it here.
Even after 17 years of recruiting into the fresh produce and food sector, it is incredibly eye-opening when attending an event like Fruit Logistica just how vast the fresh produce sector is!
Whilst the show was busy – a real buzz about the place and we spent more time talking and meeting than we did walking the floor - it did feel like there was a trend of people valuing their time. There’s always going to be a place for client entertainment and building relationships and trust often goes hand in hand with the time you invest in the company of your customers. But, with everyone being time-poor and costs under a constant microscope, it’s vital that time and money are spent well. Fruit Attraction in Madrid is a hot topic. With two trade shows vying for attention at different times of the year. One may suit better than another depending on your seasons and growers. I can’t help but feel that people want Madrid to be as useful – the food and warm weather may take a winning edge. We’ll see in October how the show compares.
Sustainability is a hot topic that has been talked about more and more (and rightly so) over the past few years. Jan Doldersum (Manager Chain & Retail) of Rijk Zwaan gave a really interesting talk on the current and future challenges the fresh produce industry is facing relating to the topic of sustainability whilst also highlighting some of the solutions Rijk Zwaan offers about this topic.
In terms of new technologies, we had an interesting conversation about airflow tech aiding fruit ripening and lots of new varieties were being launched across the show.
Fruit Logistica is a massive, massive show. It’s not going anywhere and has been Europe's number-one fresh produce event for many years. But the interest in Madrid is growing so watch this space in October!
