Seen and heard at Fruit Logistica 2024 — Part 1
BERLIN — Each year fruit and vegetable players from around the world cross countries and continents to converge at Messe Berlin for Fruit Logistica. The more than 2,750 exhibitors at this year’s show and thousands more attendees brought their A-game Feb. 7-9, sharing the latest industry innovations and engaging in candid discussion around the challenges and opportunities facing today’s global produce industry.
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Based in Valencia, Spain, SanLucar brought the flavors of the Mediterranean to its bustling and colorful booth at Fruit Logistica 2024. CEO Armin Rehberg told The Packer the company had started business with Walmart three weeks prior, entering the U.S. market with its strawberries sold through the Bentonville, Ark.-based retail giant. Next up with Walmart is the company’s big Sekoya blueberries, Rehberg said.
“Walmart is really impressed with the quality of our fruits,” Rehberg said. “We are a major brand in Europe, but not in the U.S. To work with Walmart is a major step for us, and we are very proud.”
At this year’s Fruit Logistica, the produce grower and distributor featured its main booth with an additional “showroom” across the aisle that demonstrated how best to showcase in-store displays of its products, said SanLucar’s Sonia Gabarda.
As social responsibility is essential to SanLucar’s company culture and agenda, Gabarda also discussed the company’s Dreams program that helps to make the dreams of its workers and the people in the communities in which it operates come true.
“Every farm with which we work must be committed to SanLucar’s values,” Gabarda said.
CEO Gareth Edgecombe of T&G Global, a BayWa company, sat down with The Packer to discuss this year’s bumper Envy apple crop and what’s on the horizon for the New Zealand-based produce company.
“In the apple space, it continues to be tougher to differentiate,” Edgecombe said.
When a company decides to replace a traditional apple variety with a new one, it’s essentially a 20- to 25-year commitment to put that crop in the ground, Edgecombe explained. As a result, the company has taken a highly strategic approach that begins with understanding its key markets and what product attributes are important to the consumer and the retailer.
“We’ve chosen to focus on a few premium products and really double down on scale,” he added.
A key value of the Envy apple is giving the consumer a consistently better eating experience, Edgecombe said. Meanwhile, growing in both Washington state and counter-seasonally in New Zealand ensures a year-round supply of the premium apple.
“We want the consumer to have a consistent experience every time,” Edgecombe said. “With Envy, we’re at just over 10% penetration in the U.S. market. We’ve got a long way to go, but we see that it performs well.”
At Fruit Logistica, BayWa teased Joli — the newest apple from T&G Global. “It’s our first product launch in 15 years,” said Edgecombe, who added the company has implemented a major launch of the fruit in New Zealand. In the U.S., the company has just begun trial plantings of the apple, which Edgecome describes as “very large — even larger than Envy.”
“Envy is a sweet apple, Jazz is high in sugar and acid, and Joli is in between,” said Edgecombe, who expects another four to five years before the company realizes commercial production of the Joli apple in the U.S.
In other news, Edgecombe discussed the strategic separation of T&G Global’s genetics business, VentureFruit, from its commercial apple business. VentureFruit is working on climate-resilient varieties of apples, blueberries, dragon fruit and more.
Why did Wonderful Citrus President Zak Laffite attend Fruit Logistica 2024? It’s an important part of Wonderful Citrus’ vision to foster a global citrus community, Laffite told The Packer.
“We’re asking this community: What’s hard? What’s easy? How can we help each other? There are floods, fire, droughts, soaring labor and farming costs — many of us are facing the same issues,” he said.
Laffite describes Fruit Logistica as a “sourcing show” for Wonderful Citrus rather than a “selling show.”
“This show is well attended by South Africans, South Americans and some Australians,” Laffite said. “It’s also great timing, as in March, we’re in discussions with retailers. And a lot of trends start here.”
While sourcing from partners who grow counter-seasonally to California’s crops is key to offering retailers and consumers a consistent, year-round supply of Wonderful Halos mandarins, Laffite says finding quality grower partners is first and foremost.
“The citrus has to meet Halos’ standards. Each mandarin has to taste like Halos grown in California, regardless of where it’s grown,” Laffite said.
The Wonderful Citrus president also touted the company’s “meaningful supply of seedless lemons from Mexico.” The Los Angeles-based company continues to complement its lemon orchard operations in California and Mexico with small growers around the world to develop a 52-week program for seedless lemons.
“We’re a grower who also imports fruit,” Laffite said. “We can tell growers, ‘We understand your challenges.'”
Unlike Halos, which were an overnight success story, Wonderful Citrus is working to build brand awareness of its seedless lemons.
“From Day 1 we had 55% market share with Halos,” he said. “Our seedless are growing steadily nationally; they’re a condiment, not a snack.”
Wonderful Citrus is approaching seedless lemons as the different animal it is. The company is working with chefs to get the message out as well as registered dietitians, influencers and celebrity Chrissy Teigen to share cooking ideas and inspiration, Laffite said.
Related: Wonderful Citrus expands seedless lemon program
Since the launch of its plant-based coating product designed to extend the freshness of avocados, Apeel has accumulated considerable data and quality metrics on avocado ripeness, says Jenny Du, senior vice president of operations and an Apeel founder.
This data has informed company’s new RipeTrack, a nondestructive tool to test avocado ripeness.
“It’s what retailers are looking for,” said Du, who noted RipeTrack’s numerous benefits over traditional invasive avocado ripeness testing. “[With traditional testing], it’s time-consuming to sample and it destroys the avocados. And destruction tests aren’t always appropriate as an avocado matures. RipeTrack is a nondestructive test that’s more effective.”
Du says the RipeTrack tool was inspired by Apeel’s learnings from its coating product. RipeTrack analyzes the firmness, oil content and dry matter of the of the avocado.
When Apeel entered the market, it initially provided staff to conduct the avocado tests, Du said. Now there’s much more flexibility, and those in the supply chain who ripen avocados or retailers who ripen their own avocados can use RipeTrack independently.
“Used together — Apeel’s coating and RipeTrack — is the most synergistic,” said Du, who added that Apeel exhibited at Fruit Logistica to reintroduce the brand and its enhanced capabilities.
Apeel’s Jason Carty showed attendees of Fruit Logistica 2024 how to quickly, easily and non-invasively test avocados for ripeness trends.
“With RipeTrack, retailers can understand if they’re compliant with the avocado ripening program they are pursuing,” Carty said. “It gives them more confidence in the process, and they can take more tests without waste.”
