US fresh-market apple holdings stood at 90.5million bushels on January 1, down 20% on those in January 2015 and equal to the five-year average of 90.7 million bushels, according to information published by the US Apple Association.
Holdings of processing apples stood at 38.8 million bushels, 6% lower than a year ago but up 8% on the five-year average for that date.
source: US Apple Association
The Global Cold Chain Alliance (GCCA) will host the 19th European Cold Chain Conference in Amsterdam, March 6-8. Over 100 high level professionals representing the temperature controlled supply chain industry including cold storage, transportation, logistics, distribution and construction are expected to attend. Don’t miss this opportunity to share real-life experiences and challenges with your peers and colleagues from leading companies across Europe and around the world.
Knowledge Transfer: Educational programming will provide you with a better understanding of industry trends, challenges, opportunities, solutions and best practices. The sessions will focus on four topic areas including:
Educational Programme
The 19th European Cold Chain Conference will focus on cutting-edge solutions and innovative approaches to cold chain management. Leading industry and business experts will share their thoughts, ideas, and solutions through keynote presentations and educational sessions.
Educational programme and presentations
The educational programme is still being finalised but the content will focus on the following key themes:
Keynote Presentations
Education Sessions
Energy & Refrigeration Track:
Operational Excellence Track:
Administration & Human Resources Track:
Innovation & Trends Track:
Learn more at http://www.gcca.org/19th-european-cold-chain-conference/
Unitec, the international group specialising in designing and developing technologies for the processing, sorting, quality selection, grading and packing of more than 35 types of fresh fruit and vegetables, will be at Fruit Logistica, taking place February 3-5 in Berlin.
Unitec president Angelo Benedetti said Unitec will bring its know-how, acquired over 90 years of history, to Fruit Logistica, “and the competence of a company that keeps thinking of new technological, cutting-edge solutions to improve the results in fresh fruit and vegetables processing.
“These increasingly performing solutions have been developed over the years by an organisation disposed to internationalisation,” he said.
In particular, the innovation presented by Unitec at the leading trade fair of the sector consists of systems for the quality selection and grading of a whole set of fruits, from blueberries to watermelons.
Unitec technologies for the internal and external quality selection of fruits are cutting-edge systems specifically structured and designed for each type of fruit (Cherry Vision, but also Apple Vision, Apricot Vision, Peach Vision, Blueberry Vision, etc.). Therefore, it is now possible to detect accurately and gently not just size and colour, but sweetness (Brix degree), ripeness, external and internal defects as well, in particular to remove soft/overripe fruits which are no longer suitable for export.
Fruits quality selection and grading certainly are key factors, and the systems developed by Unitec allow packing houses to formulate consistent export plans according to fruit ripeness. At the same time, Unitec technologies for quality selection enable fruit grading according to various quality parameters, uniformly and consistently over time. This important feature is the most relevant factor to increase consumer trust, since they are ensured they will always have a product that meets their expectations at every purchase.
GreenTech, the global meeting place for all professionals involved in horticulture technology, will be held in Amsterdam’s RAI Exhibition and Convention Centre from June 14-16. With over 350 international exhibitors including all the market leaders, GreenTech focuses on the early stages of the horticulture chain and production issues relevant to growers of flowers and vegetables.
Ensuring that knowledge and best practice is shared, is one of the driving forces behind the show. It is an opportunity to join horticulture industry professionals from around the world focusing on all the technologies required for producing crops throughout the horticulture chain. GreenTech turns the spotlight on innovation as well as proven-in-practice products, applications and solutions. All the technology related to modern plant production will be on display, from seed to tomato or rose.
During the week of the show, a range of interesting parallel events is available, including flower and vegetables trials. Held in close proximity to Amsterdam, the mix of trials and other technical excursions provides genuine added value to international professionals, offering the opportunity to see a world of new and proven techniques under one roof, while also viewing them in various high-tech greenhouses.
Based on close consultation with the horticulture and floriculture sectors, GreenTech Amsterdam’s organisers have chosen four connected themes for the event: crops, water, energy and biobased. The show also includes a vertical farming pavilion and demo area for heavy equipment and machinery.
For more information: www.greentech.nl
Here we profile six of the ten finalists for the Fruit Logistica Innovation Award (FLIA) for 2016.
HZPC revives ‘forgotten’ potatoes with its Perupas
“Colourful, tasty and different: a painting on your plate!” That’s how Dutch seed potato breeding and marketing specialist HZPC describes one of its newest concepts – ‘WOW! Colourful Perupas!’ A collection of varieties of unique colours, shapes and/or tastes, these potatoes have their origins in ancient varieties from Peru – mainly found in the Andes mountains – and are intended for professional chefs and home cooks seeking variation, inspiration and taste. Perupas comes in various types: Magenta Love, Double Fun, Violet Queen, Blue Star, Violetta, Anya.
A new, striking striped pepper: Enjoya
This red/yellow striped sweet pepper was first discovered by Dutch grower Wilfred van den Berg in 2013 in his greenhouse in Est. Together with Enza Zaden and 4Evergreen, the optimal way to cultivate it has since been found and it is now on the market under the name Enjoya. Available from speciality greengrocers in the Netherlands last year, Enjoya was supplied to the catering and hospitality trade, where its unique appearance, delicious aromatic flavour and pleasant crispy bite – as well as its high level of vitamin C – make it highly valued.
Pearl Herbs the perfect – and piquant – garnish
Pearl Herbs are an innovative new line of tiny fresh herbs “with perfect appearance” and intense flavour currently available in six varieties: radish, pea shoots, sunflower, thyme and red mustard. Ideal for garnishing dishes, this product comes from Israel’s 2BFresh, a subsidiary of Teshuva Agricultural Projects Ltd (TAP), famous for its culinary fresh herbs and lettuces grown in soilless culture. At Fruit Logistica 2016, Olesh-based 2BFresh is presenting 3 product lines: the new Pearl Herbs, hydroponic fresh herbs that are ready to eat, and micro leaves – think of them as “gourmet vegetable confetti” – that are also ready for use and ideal for use in restaurants, catering and at home.
QualyCheck app aids quality control
Smartphones and tablets convert into valuable tools for the quality control of fresh fruit and vegetables thanks to this inventive app from Germany company HortKinetix. QualyCheck not only allows users to generate and send a quality control report from their device, it leads them step-by-step through the quality inspection process – just like booking a flight – and generates a report, accompanied by photos, which is then digitally sent to pre-determined contacts, keeping them informed in real-time about produce quality. This low-cost solution also helps users optimise their quality control processes and stay up-to-date with relevant regulations.
Genuine Coconut for authentic virgin coconut water
Genuine Coconut makes the most of the fact that nature has already designed the ideal container for coconut water – the coconut. It simply makes the healthy liquid inside easier to enjoy by providing a patented opening and a drinking straw. But Spanish company World’s Coconut Trading is fussy about the coconuts selected for this new product, choosing only fresh ones of the fragrant, naturally sweet Nam Hom variety grown organically in Thailand. Genuine Coconut is already on sale in El Corte Inglés supermarkets and various speciality stores around Spain.
Home-harvested cherry tomatoes from Northern Greens
Ideal for the kitchen windowsill or anywhere else in the home, the Kitchen Minis Tomato is a special plant that can yield up to 150 tomatoes over about 6 months. Who wouldn’t enjoy watching their cherry tomatoes grow at their fingertips and harvesting them fresh from the vine? From Denmark’s Northern Greens, a year-round fruit and vegetable supplier, there are plans for this product to soon be available around Europe, tapping growing demand for home-grown produce. Standing about 35cm high, it takes up little space while making an attractive and unique home decoration.
The 10th edition of Interpoma, the biannual specialist trade show for the apple sector, takes place November 24-26 in Bolzano, Italy. Now established as the must-attend event for those in the apple industry, Interpoma offers information on the latest trends, cultivation techniques, storage technology, marketing, sorting and packing, as well as a platform for doing business and making new contacts. At the last edition, held in 2014, 423 top-quality exhibitors from 21 countries used this important sector forum to present themselves to more than 17,974 professional visitors from over 70 different countries. It also hosted top-level conferences and meetings tackling the most compelling issues concerning the apple, in the presence of the most authoritative international experts.
Visitors to Interpoma also benefit from its ideal setting in the northern Italian province of Bolzano, the capital of South Tyrol and cradle of the European apple industry. This unique location makes the fair a magnet for exhibitors and visitors not just from Italy but other alpine regions such as Austria, Germany and Swiss. And with its spotlight on the international apple industry, Interpoma also attracts the industry’s foremost experts from the four corners of the globe, providing an opportunity for trade professionals to assess the health of the sector, unveil exciting new products, compare notes and do business.
Three quarters of Interpoma visitors in 2014 came from outside South Tyrol, with a large proportion coming from all over Europe – featuring a notable rise in numbers from Eastern Europe, especially Serbia, Moldavia and Poland – and from over 70 nations worldwide, including: Afghanistan, Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, South Korea, Egypt, Ecuador, Georgia, Jordan, Japan, Haiti, India, Iran, Israel, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Mexico, New Zealand, Pakistan, Peru, Russia, South Africa, Tunisia, Turkey Ukraine, Uruguay, Uzbekistan and the US.
Contact the Interpoma team for more information.
What are the top trends in retail? To find out and gain important insights into formats, internet sales, and location-based services, GfK, Germany’s largest market research institute, surveyed more than 500 people from 60 countries, including members of the retail sector and relevant experts.
In 2013, the top 3 trends in the retail sector were internet, price competition and the concentration of distribution. But by last year they had changed to convenience, internet and mobile communication. And more importantly, in the future, the key trends are expected to be mobile communication, ahead of convenience and internet, then seamless multi-channel retailing and transparency.
Thus, factors such as price competition, which is significant now, are expected to lose importance in future, while others, such as seamless multi-channel retailing, gain relevance, and mobile communication – which Gfk says is “very promising” – moves to the top. “Retail formats incorporating mobile retail solutions are expected to be most successful in future,” GfK said in its Retail Trend Monitor 2015 report. It also said that the pure internet players of today are expected to be lower on the scale of success in future.
Location-based services an opportunity
GfK surveyed the retailers and experts on their opinion of using location-based services to attract customers and/or study customer behavior in stationary (bricks-and-mortar) stores through mobile apps. An example is using beacon technology so that as a participating consumer moves through the city, nearby retailers can send them targetted offers such as coupons, discounts, and alerts to their mobile device (localised via GPS) to attract them into the store. They can also use the mobile devices to track the movement and buying behaviour of consumers participating in the service.
GfK’s main findings on use of location-based services are that:
Source: GfK Retail Trend Monitor 2015: Nino Kereselidze, junior marketing consultant, and Markus Tuschl,global director of Digital Retail.
Image: geralt via Pixabay
From editor Pierre Escodo and everyone at Eurofresh Distribution.
In this interview, World Union of Wholesale Markets chairman Manuel Estrada-Nora explains why modern wholesale markets now fall into the wider concept of a food logistics platform.
How are value-added services making wholesale markets more competitive?
Many of the European wholesale markets today are what we used to call ‘3rd generation markets’. They go beyond the mere sale and purchase of fresh food. Wholesalers have the space and facilities to develop a number of activities of their business: washing, sorting, grading, cutting, packaging, ripening, storage and cold-storage, management of orders, delivery, etc. These kinds of activities – product segmentation, in short – are increasingly important at wholesale markets, as wholesalers serve not only the traditional small retailers or retail markets, but also chains of hotels, restaurants, supermarkets and hypermarkets. This is why terms such as “food complex” and “food logistics platform” better define what a modern wholesale market is. In some wholesale markets, the volume of fruits and vegetables delivered from such complementary facilities either equals or exceeds the amount traded at the pavilions for wholesaling (e.g. Mercabarna, Rungis-Paris and Padova and other Northern Italian markets, especially for exports.
How strong is food security and traceability at wholesale markets today?
European wholesale markets are a benchmark for food security and food product traceability. Food hygiene is a priority for the owners and managers of wholesale markets. The professionalism of the producers and wholesalers is nowadays a key factor of food security in our wholesale markets. Luckily, the wholesale sector of fresh products is a mature and very competitive one which sets very high quality standards for itself. The maintenance of a “brand” in fresh products and the requirements of certification also impose quality requirements on wholesale traders, importers and exporters which are sometimes even stricter than official regulations.
Not only the hygiene of the products but the hygiene of the facilities, warehouses and areas of common use is a key focus for wholesale market managers. In this context, the WUWM has developed a “Community Guide to Good Hygienic Practices”, adopted by the European Commission in late 2009 as support for the sector. In addition, unannounced official inspections of wholesale markets occur at the wholesalers’ stalls: their commercial documentation is verified and samples of their products taken for analysis. In cases of food safety alerts, wholesale markets act as an efficient and rapid point of investigation and action ensuring an efficient traceability process, determining the origin of the problem and limiting the damage.
What major issues related to fruit & vegetable are being dealt with by the WUWM?
There are a number of issues highly relevant for wholesale market managers in order to improve the service rendered to the traders: green energies, food waste and food losses reduction, waste recycling, excellence in hygiene, improvement in management models, co-operation projects with wholesalers, among others. There is a big range of issues of social relevance: the support markets lend to local farmers, public education on healthy eating, support to small and medium local/regional companies, and the impact of climate change on food markets, all of them closely related with the successes and challenges facing wholesale markets worldwide.
What can you tell us about renovation in wholesale markets?
Wholesale markets in developing countries are making very big efforts to improve their standards. And in fact, in some aspects of this management they demonstrate excellence in performance. In Mexico, Brazil and China, for instance, large investments are underway in wholesale market development.
The European wholesale market sector is more mature so many markets have been partially, or even completely, modernised and refurbished. Some have had to be relocated over the years, as they became surrounded by new urban developments. This is why you may find brand new and modern “old” wholesale markets in England, France, Italy, Germany, Spain and Poland, as well as in many other countries. You also have to bear in mind that European regulation is increasingly strict in relation to hygiene, work safety, transportation and traffic, waste management, energy efficiency, etc. Wholesale market managers are responsible for these aspects, which requires the continuous update of certain infrastructures.
How do wholesale markets differ between ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ economies?
Wholesale markets are often associated with the idea of local food, local agriculture or “Km 0” production and this is correct, both for developed and developing economies. The importance of this is enormous from a socioeconomic and sustainable agriculture point of view.
The difference, in my opinion, is that in developed economies, like Europe, wholesale markets additionally absorb a large share of imported fresh products to satisfy the demand of products from other regions of the planet and of national products when off-season. Even in large producer and exporter countries, such as in southern Europe, the import of fresh fruit and vegetables via wholesale markets may represent 50% of the total.
What is happening with the ‘Love Your Local Market’ (LYLM) campaign?
‘Love Your Local Market’ was very successful in 2015, with the participation of over 2,000 food markets from 16 countries. This global campaign is effective in engendering public recognition of the role and importance of traditional markets throughout Europe and the world. I want to thank the UK WUWM member NABMA, the National Association of British Market Authorities, which in 2014 freely offered us the concept and their expertise gained from the original national campaign run in England some four years ago, so that we could run it globally and encourage markets everywhere to participate in what has now become the biggest market celebration ever seen. In 2016, we hope to further expand the campaign, with increased participation in Asia and Latin-America.
What else was a highlight in 2015 or on the agenda for 2016?
Looking back over 2015, we also enjoyed two highly interesting conferences, the first in Budapest (Hungary) in May and the other in Campinas (Sao Paulo, Brazil) in September. We also signed a formal collaboration agreement with the UN FAO which has began to show mutual benefits.
Our next international conference will be held in Lublin, Poland, in May. After the change of political system at the end of last century, Poland very quickly established an efficient network of wholesale markets throughout the country. We want to focus on the specific situation of wholesale, retail and farmers markets in Eastern Europe and in the former Soviet countries. We will also pay attention to flower markets, an essential component of many food markets worldwide.
Lufthansa Cargo reports ongoing growth in the transport of berries to Europe from Argentina, Chile, Mexico and, as of this year, Peru, especially during the high demand period for berries during the European and North American winter time. Uta Frank, product manager for the company’s Frankfurt-based Fresh/td perishables division, told ED that transport of strawberries from Egypt is also developing strongly, along with ongoing high demand from Brazil for all kind of fruits.
“We have noted an increase in deliveries for shipments coming from Brazil, Ecuador and Kenya which are arriving in Frankfurt by freighter and will be transported to different European countries and Perishable Import Stations such as London, Amsterdam and, as of recently, also to Russia,” Frank also said.
Employee checks a consignment of edible flowers at the Perishable Center, Frankfurt (Photographer: Stefan Wildhirt)
“We are noticing an increase not only in flowers but now also fruit and vegetables being transported to Russia, e.g. from Kenya, maybe due to the new restrictions on goods from Turkey. But we can also see that many customers are interested in direct flights to Russia instead of transporting them by truck. Additionally, we are now seeing trial shipments by sea for flowers from Kenya, as well as some blackberries from South American countries. So it will might be interesting in the future to the developments, but we are still expecting demand for air freight,” she said.
Vacuum-cooling used to extend shelf life
Optimising the appearance and shelf-life of produce is Fresh/td’s main focus, Frank said. With that aim, and in cooperation with the Perishable Center Frankfurt (PCF), it offers the possibility of vacuum-cooling in Frankfurt. “This is a service preferably used for flowers subject to a long transport time overall, coming from South America or Africa and then facing another long trip from Frankfurt to their final destination. The vacuum-cooler can cool down two PMC pallets (96×125 inches) in just 30 minutes. Its fast yet gentle cooling helps maximise the lifespan of sensitive, perishable goods such as flowers. A fast cooler is also available in the PCF for use with fruit such as berries.
“In order to keep products such as flowers, plants, fruit and vegetables in good condition and to even extend their shelf life, the combined effort and co-operation of all partners in the supply-chain is becoming more and more important, from the farm right through until delivery to the consumer,” she said.
Employee checks a consignment of mangoes at the Perishable Center, Frankfurt (Photographer: Stefan Wildhirt)
Frankfurt’s role as Europe’s perishable imports hub
Founded in 2014 to strengthen Frankfurt’s position as one of Europe’s key perishable import hubs, the Air Cargo Community Frankfurt and its working group ‘Perishable Professionals’ continue to work towards this aim, especially to speed up processes in Frankfurt during transit or for import shipments. “We have again improved our Fresh/td To-Door Services together with our partner CCG DE GmbH (Cool Chain Group) to reach a seamless supply chain which is safe and transparent,” Frank said.
Lufthansa’s global perishables capacity
Lufthansa Cargo ranks among the world’s leading cargo carriers. In the 2014 business year, the airline transported around 1.7 million tons of freight and mail and sold 8.6 billion revenue tonnage-kilometers. The cargo carrier serves around 300 destinations in 100 countries with its own fleet of freighters, the belly capacities of passenger aircraft operated by Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines, and an extensive road feeder service network. The bulk of the cargo business is routed through Frankfurt Airport. Five B777F and twelve active MD-11F three-engine wide-body long-haul aircraft currently make up the heart of the Lufthansa Cargo fleet.
“With our MD-11 freighter we are serving the main perishables regions such as Central and South America (Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico) and Africa (Kenya, Egypt). Out of Frankfurt, larger shipments will be transported by using our Road Feeder Service with temperature-controlled trucks to European destinations or together with our delivery partner for Fresh/td To-Door, the Cool Chain Group, we are delivering directly to the final consignee in Europe,” Frank said.
Photos: Lufthansa Cargo
