Mike Knowles

Go on. Have a bowl of goji berries, then come back and tell me whether or not you feel any healthier. Not sure? Surely the fact that a whole gaggle of celebrities is raving about how great berries are is proof enough? No? Madonna is telling anyone who cares to listen that she can’t get enough of those wonderful Himalayan goji berries. Apparently, they can improve your eyesight and circulation, protect your liver, cleanse your aura, wash your car, tidy your room, clean your teeth and comb your hair. One report even suggests they boost your sperm count. Hmm, perhaps Madonna isn’t telling us everything. Assuming it’s all true, though, I’m going to stop writing, call my bank and tell them to invest all my money in this amazing product.

But wait, it turns out the evidence is not so clear-cut. In fact, there is no clinical study or regulatory authority that has scientifically verified the claims made about goji berries. For the berry sector as a whole, health claims – some of which are indeed backed by real scientific research – have made the job of marketing fruits like raspberries, blueberries and blackberries to increasingly health-conscious consumers much easier over the past few years. But the science needs to be developed further. At the beginning of October, UK drinks company Innocent was told to withdraw an advert in which it described its acai berry, pomegranate and blueberry drink as a “natural detox superfoods smoothie” that could completely remove toxins from the body. The country’s Advertising Standards Authority said Innocent had not proved the claim, adding that it had failed to back another claim that the drink had more anti-oxidants than the recommended five portions of fruit and vegetables per day.

What the research needs to show is what effect the high levels of anti-oxidants found in fruits such as blueberries and blackberries actually have on the human body. As nutritionist Catherine Collins told a BBC investigation in February: “Just because something is a superfood in a test tube, it doesn’t make it a superfood in us.” Along the right lines is new research published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences just last month. This evaluated the ability of ellagic acid in berries to reduce DNA damage, which can lead to cancer. The study found that eating blueberries and strawberries led to moderate reductions in such damage, but for raspberries the effect was even more pronounced, with DNA damage reduced by 59 per cent.

Only by backing up its health claims with more indisputable evidence will the berry sector be able to sustain its recent staggering growth.

Mike Knowles

We like to think we are a resourceful bunch here at Eurofruit Magazine, so when it came to working out how on earth we would manage to get around all 25 of Fruit Logistica's exhibition halls, on what has become the fresh produce trade's equivalent of the grand tour, in just three days, we decided to adopt the sensible approach: run for the hills, hide, then wait for it to all be over.

Only kidding, of course! While the event must certainly be daunting for those who've never been before, the fact that you have so much of the trade together in one place is one of the event's greatest assets and should not be overlooked. With a little forward planning, it needn't be that overwhelming. This year's Berlin bonanza may have been the biggest ever, but it was also the best ever, and we certainly weren't going to be beaten. We divided and, to the best of our abilities, attempted to conquer.

A major consequence of Fruit Logistica's phenomenal expansion during recent years has been, in my opinion, a greater emphasis on the need for imaginative and innovative marketing. Quite simply, if you’re standing in a crowded room, you'll have to shout louder than if there were only a handful of people around you. How else do you explain Padua Wholesale Market's incredible stand, which was done up like a Venetian palazzo? Not for them the safe chrome and frosted glass combination so beloved of many exhibitors, including ourselves. In terms of sheer marketing impact, the loudest companies were the one which unveiled Australian finger limes and said they were “citrus caviar”, and the team behind Fruitness enjoy it!, which employed a male model to dress up as superhero Mr Fruitness. He didn’t say much, but when you’re dressed in green lycra and a laurel wreath, you don’t have to really.

Of course, many exhibitors still plump for that old faithful of the fresh produce trade: busty ladies in skimpy dresses, on hand ostensibly to take messages, serve drinks and keep that importer amused for five minutes while the supplier he's supposed to be meeting seals a 12-month listing with Tesco. How those ladies kept a straight face wandering round with the word 'melons' emblazoned across their chests is beyond me, not that I was complaining.

After three days of journalistic hunting and gathering, our carefully plotted excursion around the world of fresh produce had become something of a mental safari. Next year, thank goodness, we’ll have the whole weekend to recover…

Mike Knowles

It may surprise you to learn that one of my abiding memories from last year’s Southern Hemisphere Congress in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires was not the conference, but the decision of one gentleman (who shall remain nameless for now) to slip away from a group of 30 or so delegates on a tour of the local Wal-Mart Supercenter in order to bag himself a hamburger with fries and coke. What made this act of burger bravado all the more stunning was the fact that this man’s day job is to promote health and nutrition through the development and expansion of the fresh produce trade. How can we expect to rein in the bulging waistlines of this world when the finest marketing minds in fresh produce are filling themselves full of fast food? Ok, so there was lettuce under that bun, but that’s hardly a salad.

Of course, my initial reaction as a professional journalist was to photograph the offender and question him about his choice of lunch. But then I began to realise that it probably wasn't fair to single out one person and blame him for all that's wrong with our diets. It also dawned on me that, since I had arrived in Argentina, I had eaten steak for dinner five nights out of five. That very evening, my meat eating broke new records when I polished off the entirely inappropriately named ‘baby bife’ steak, which weighed in at approximately 800g. It was so big, it would have eaten the burger for breakfast. In short, who was I to judge?

Consumption habits won’t change overnight, nor should we expect everyone to abandon the fast food restaurants completely. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be pressing ahead with schemes aimed at encouraging greater consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables. Next year, a new pan-European scheme to provide schoolchildren with free portions of fruit is expected to get off the ground at last. Our special report on this and several other consumption schemes already in operation across Europe can be found on p22-23 of this issue.

In the meantime, I will be hanging my head in shame and attempting to burn off that baby bife. At this month's Fruit Logistica trade show in Berlin, I hope to catch up with the burger-eating delegate and see how he’s been faring since Christmas. Maybe he has managed to avoid the fast food outlets since then, or perhaps switch to one of their healthier options. Either way, it will be good to catch up with him and discuss the latest trends in fresh produce marketing over a bratwurst…

Mike Knowles

Currency is very much a current affair for the fresh produce trade in Europe. Strip away all the marketing initiatives and public relations drives, the traceability and agricultural certification schemes, the research and development spending and the fancy packaging, and what you have left is a simple transaction by which a supplier is looking to earn a certain return. Spending a bit extra on such things might of course guarantee a better return, but the thing that makes or breaks the whole deal is what the various players in the chain ultimately earn.

When several of the European Union’s member states adopted the euro, what very few people accounted for was the fact that exchange rates would still have a massive impact on trade in Europe, particular where currencies like the dollar and the euro ended up being under- or overvalued. Europe is now playing a waiting game. Will we see an influx of fruit into the market this season as overseas suppliers divert their produce from markets paying in dollars? Only time will tell.

In the past, exchange rates used to have a big influence on the nature of the European fresh produce trade. The Italian lira, for example, was so weak that, to a certain extent, it helped Italian exporters maintain their competitive position in the market. Of course, its products had a reputation for quality too, but money made their world go round just that bit more smoothly. That competitive advantage is now gone. Its biggest competitor, Spain, now sells its wares on a level playing field, and has made up a lot of ground as a result.

As we head into a particularly uncertain 2008, suppliers must resist cashing in on the short-term benefits of currency fluctuations, because what will actually make or break companies in the long run is service to the customer and the strength of their long-term partnerships.
What’s more, everything could look completely different in a year’s time. Economics has a marvellous way of straightening itself out, albeit through painful correction from time to time. Consult two economists and you’ll get three opinions on what will happen in the future.

Of course, suppliers have to consider their returns, but it would be wrong, for the sake of a quck buck, to jeopardise all the hard work that’s gone into the creation of stable markets, along with proper development of supply chain relationships, customer loyalty and product quality, over the past few years.

Europe’s traders need to weigh up their options and make the right choice.

Mike Knowles

There’s something about the fresh produce trade that reminds me of football, believe it or not. Both are made up of private groups seeking to attract the biggest market share and rise to the top of their respective leagues. At times, the game is a frustrating, tense affair; at other times, it’s an exciting and captivating spectacle. In some countries, those paying for the pleasure of sampling what these teams have to offer are looking for a high quality, good-looking product; whereas in other instances the aesthetics are not so much of an issue as long as the end result is the right one.

Europe’s fresh produce business, much like its football industry, has relied increasingly on exports from Latin America in the past few decades to sustain it and enable it to improve further. Some may have feared that this trade was a threat to local, home-grown talent, but they appear actually to have raised standards in European competition and encouraged more people to part with their money.

Sometimes, some of the industry’s best players put aside their differences and compete together on the international stage. Putting on their country’s colours, they become collaborators instead of competitors, with a shared goal and a team ethic. In the fruit and vegetable sector during the last few years, the Southern Hemisphere’s leading exporters have gone further still and formed a regional partnership, promoting competitive cooperation through the Southern Hemisphere Association of Fresh Fruit Exporters. As a result partly of this development, we are now noticing smooth transitions between Europe’s season and counter-season for a number of products – most notably for apples, pears and berries but also for kiwifruit, stonefruit and grapes, although less so for citrus. Imagine if Pelé, Maradona and Alfredo Di Stéfano had teamed up with George Best, Johan Cruijff and Zinedine Zidane; that would have been some front line indeed.

I’m really looking forward to visiting Argentina for the very first time at the end of this month, and not just because I’m a huge fan of Maradona (and steak). My trip coincides with the Southern Hemisphere Congress, Eurofruit Magazine’s annual trade conference, which takes place in Buenos Aires on 28-30 November 2007. The event, the only one of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere, brings together many of the country’s leading fresh produce companies as well as a good number of the regional trade’s foremost operators and service providers. It’s half-time in terms of Europe’s annual supply calendar, and this issue is designed to blow the whistle for the start of the second half.