Another edition of the Global Berry Congress ended in Rotterdam, Netherlands, in which over 400 operators took part.
There is still a lot of room for the sector to grow and FreshPlaza talked to a few Italian companies that attended.
From left, Jonathan Baldwin, Ilip UK resident area manager, Mauro Stipa, export sales manager, and Enrico Cristoni, export area manager, in front of the ILIP stand.
Roberto Zanichelli, sales & manager director for ILIP, explains that "we took part as supply chain partners of all events. In addition, we also presented our main products: heat-sealed punnets and classic punnets, both available with pluriballs or absorbing pads."
"The event is important not only to assess future global trends, but also to consider what to invest in to increase consumption."
From left, Alessandro Mariani and Matteo Camillini, respectively export manager and manager Italia for Infia.
"For us, the Berry Congress is important to strengthen our relationship with out main clients. This market is growing constantly and therefore, despite being one of the European leaders for plastic packaging, we make an extra effort in the soft fruit sector," explains Alessandro Mariani, export manager for Infia.
"We promoted our side-ventilated punnet, which works well with heat-sealing because it prevents condensation problems. The produce looks more appealing and is protected from fungi and mould. We also showcased our high-definition printing directly on punnets."
Philipp Morandell.
"This was our first year as we entered the soft fruit market only two years ago," explains Philipp Morandell from Top Control. "We promoted Statistics Weight, our software to monitor real-time production data."
"The main advantage is the possibility to detect the exact weight of 125, 250 and 500 gram packets, thus reducing costs and improving quality."
Enrico Turoni.
It was also the first time at the event for Enrico Turioni's TR Turoni. "It was quite interesting. I presented innovative tools to control the firmness of flesh and the ripening of blueberries and strawberries." The tool can also be used to measure cherries and avocados simply by changing the tip.
"It was very professionally organised but I would say that the location has almost reached its limit for what concerns the number of participants."
Giovanni Secanti, Clarissa Masinara and Raffaele Benedetti from Unitec.
Raffaele Benedetti, sales manager for Unitec, was one of the speakers during the convention held on 24th March, and talked about the relationship between technology and fruit quality. The company promoted its Blueberry Vision technology to detect quality, grade, colour, brix level and defects.