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Tuesday, January 12, 2021
EUROPE

Our team

Sander Bruins Slot
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Nichola McGregor
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Nick Peters
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Annika Durinck
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Job Offers

Horticulture Specialist - Guelph (Ontario) Canada

Technical Director - Brussels, Belgium

Senior Maintenance Engineer - USA East coast greenhouse facility, location negotiable

Greenhouse Assistant - Abbotsford (BC) Canada

Technical Service Manager - remote, US based

Chief agronomic / Head grower

Chief Executive Officer

Greenhouse grower / production manager

Assistant Professor of Protected Agricultural Systems Design (Tenure-Track) - USA

Grower Tomato Crops - Huron (Ohio) USA

Roel De Winter, ORCA, Belgium

"Good chicory year sadly ends with low prices"

“The year, 2020, was an excellent year for chicory. COVID-19 greatly increased the demand for this product. We got good prices for a good while. But, the year didn't end…

Job Offers:

Juan Antonio Reyes, manager of Reyes Gutiérrez:

"Now I see less interest in avocados compared to the start of the pandemic"

The green-skinned avocado varieties, with which the campaign kicked off in Spain in late September and early October, were followed in early December by Hass avocados, whose…

Empty produce shelves predominantly due to Spanish veg shortage

There have been reports in the UK’s national media about empty produce shelves at the supermarkets, which they say are caused by Brexit but this may not be the…

Freshfel Europe Consumption Monitor shows 4% increase in EU fresh fruit and vegetable consumption

Today Freshfel Europe published its 2020 Consumption Monitor, the Association’s analysis for fresh fruit and vegetables production, trade and consumption…

Stephan Schilling, Divimove LLC:

"Fruit and vegetable retailers need to take off their marketing blinders"

Fruits and vegetables are staple foods, so some people might think that there is no need to invest in marketing for this product group. In fact, there is still a lot that can…

La Costiera has introduced innovations in its packaging and is ready for new foreign markets

The Sorrento PGI lemon season is in its early stages

The Sorrento PGI lemon season at La Costiera started on 1 January and will continue until 15 October. "This season comes with a new packaging, which will be used in addition…

Logistics still problematic when it comes to exporting produce from Turkey

“Demand for apples slightly lower this year, but still satisfactory”

The Turkish apple season is in full swing and although demand is slightly lower than it was last year, India has proven a good client. They’ve been importing the Turkish Red…

Ronald van Vossen, Angus Soft Fruits Europe:

"Our softfruit turnover increased by 418% in 2020 thanks to our different strategy and growth in retail"

"Across the board, we had quite a bit of activity in soft fruit during the holidays, but from week 53 onwards, the supply has been hit hard by the cold in Southern Europe. For…

Snow storm in Spain leading to increased demand for clementines

In Spain, storm Filomena has brought wintery conditions more typical of Scandinavian countries, with abundant rains, snowfalls and sub-zero temperatures in various parts of…

Compagnia delle Primizie

Rossetta® strawberry production in full swing

The strawberry campaign has just started at Compagnia delle Primizie, the cooperative specializing in strawberry and small fruit production. For the new campaign, the…

Special Latin America

CarSol anticipates positive blueberry season Chile

General manager of CarSol Fruit SA, Álvaro Prieto, is expecting a positive blueberry season. He highlighted that -so far- better yields have been observed than…

Global Focus Grapes

ASAJA denounces the collapse of New Year's Eve grape prices

"Large supermarkets are bringing down the prices of Christmas grapes due to competition"

The organization ASAJA Alicante has denounced the price drops suffered by the bagged table grapes of Vinalopó, specifically of the Aledo variety. This is a…

OP Platinum

Increasing prices for Sicilian vegetables

It has been a fluctuating season for Sicilian vegetables, though things have been improving between the end of the past year and the first ten days of January 2021, especially…

Danish company launches new package solution

Bottom of fresh herbs bag becomes growing pot

Danish based growing company Grow Up FARM is launching a new product, named Eat-Grow-Repeat: small pea plants that grow in hemp in a bag. Refrigerated and bagged, the pea…

Innovative Fresh integrated in Normec Foodcare for a total package of quality related fruit and vegetable aspects

"When a tester examines a container of grapes, they have a direct impact on 50,000 consumers"

In 2007, Maud Jentjens and Jelger de Vriend founded Innovative Fresh to make the quality of fruit and vegetables on the fruit and vegetable shelf measurable in the belief that…

Some stores start to run low on fruit and vegetables

UK supermarkets affected by Brexit port chaos and staff shortages

On some supermarket fruit and vegetable shelves, there are signs of shortages amid warnings that supplies are being squeezed by Brexit red tape at ports. Unfortunately, this…

Virto Group again chooses Tomra and renews equipment at its main plant with eleven Nimbus BSI+ sorters

Virto Group, the largest frozen vegetable company in Spain and one of the most important in Europe, has again put its trust in TOMRA. The company has updated its main plant in…

"Mangos are very delicate to process"

Because mango is a very tender piece of fruit, it's often peeled by hand. The main USP's of ZTI's machines are longer shelf life and a better yield. Shelf life: Because the mango…

Some consequences of Brexit:

British drivers have sandwiches confiscated at Dutch border

British drivers arriving by ferry from the UK have had their ham sandwiches confiscated. Customs officers have had to explain to drivers at the Hook of Holland…

"2020 wasn't a good year for Bulgarian vegetable farming"

The year 2020 proved to be unfavorable for Bulgarian vegetable cultivation. That's according to data from the Dutch National Statistical Institute. Overall…

Moldovan cooperatives to aid plum producers in the EU market

At the end of 2020, Moldovan grower organizations reported that almost 23,000 tons of plums were exported from the country to the EU that year. The fruit was…

Dutch criminals use potato exports to Africa to launder money

According to the Fiscale Inlichtingen en OpsporingsDienst (FIOD), Dutch criminals are increasingly using exports to Africa to launder money. These funds are…

Innovation Norway ups €7 million fruit and vegetable grants to €12 million in 2021

Innovation Norway (Innovasjon Norge) is a state-owned company. It grants annual subsidies to Norwegian provinces. This year, it's made some €60 million (NOK…

Polish fresh raspberries are fastest growing horti export segment

Fresh raspberries and blackberries showed the largest increase in revenue from Poland’s exports in the first nine months of 2020. The berry exports increased…

Spanish police investigate international scam involving sale of non-certified organic grapes

The Guardia Civil of Alicante has started an investigation on two men and a woman of Spanish nationality for fraud, belonging to a criminal group, document…

Spain

New quarantine pest in Huelva affecting citrus and berries

The presence in Huelva of the quarantine pest Scirtothrips aurantii Faure has been confirmed by the General Directorate of Agricultural and Livestock…

In 2020, Swedes loved eating potatoes the most

A survey was recently undertaken among 1.000 Swedes. They were asked about the trendiest and most popular foods of 2020. Livsmedelsföretagen commissioned the…

Andrew Arubckle

Will UK potato growers give the AHDB a roasting in a new ballot?

The ballot paper in front of potato growers and vegetable producers does not use these words but this is the crux: do you want to continue paying a levy to the…

Average weekly wholesale prices of fruit and veg & bananas

Bananas from Belize at £0.86: 30% rise from last week

This series gives the average wholesale prices of bananas by country of origin. The prices are national averages of the most usual prices charged for bananas at wholesale…

Compound is banned in EU

UK government approves use of bee-harming pesticide

UK conservationists have condemned a government decision late last week that approves the use of a pesticide known to harm bees. On Friday, The Department for Environment,…

Ontario-based grower hires new GM for Mexico greenhouse

Nature Fresh Farms welcomes Robert Van Der Geest as general manager to its Mexico team. Nature Fresh Farms has financially invested in the operation of a…

Limited supplies bring high demand and pricing for Costa Rica pineapples

The new year has started off with limited supplies, high demand and high prices on the pineapple market. The holidays saw a big increase in volumes shipped, and now that the…

United Fresh releases trend report

Adapting to the new normal

There is no question that the world has changed immensely in the space of just 12 months. The unprecedented scale of the COVID-19 pandemic has touched the lives of every New Zealander…

USApple Market News Report

US apple stocks 13.1% lower compared with same time last year

The January 2021 edition of the US Apple Association's Market News is now available. This is the third report on the 2020 apple crop According to the survey, this year's fresh…

Limoneira sees lower revenue in Fourth Quarter 2020 compared to previous year

The Limoneira Company, a diversified citrus growing, packing, selling and marketing company with related agribusiness activities and real estate development…

Argentina

The pear and apple harvest is about to start in the Upper Valley

The Upper Valley's pear harvest will begin in the middle of this week with the harvest of the Williams variety, one of the region's flagship varieties.…

Bolivia seeks to boost banana exports to the European market

Bolivia seeks to increase its banana production capacity to export this product to the European market via the National Banana Plan, a project promoted by…

Vietnamese automobile billionaire takes over HAGL Agrico

Vietnamese billionaire Tran Ba Duong, who founded THACO in 1997, a company that has grown to be the largest domestic automobile producer, has taken over as…

Working on ‘Carrot cement’

Root vegetables and ash could make concrete more sustainable

Concrete, being the universal building material of choice for countless structures, also has a huge environmental footprint mostly due to carbon dioxide…

Retail

Dreamstime

Groceries Code Adjudicator Mark White has launched the regulator’s annual survey

Todis expects to report a 13% annual growth in turnover

Click & Collect slots now available from 447 Morrisons stores across the UKMorrisons is expanding its Click & Collect service to 447 stores across the UK to help feed the…

FreshPlaza Funny

Easy rider