Sian Thomas - Fresh Produce Consortium
Sian Thomas from the Fresh Produce Consortium opened the workshop by saying that 65% of the 8.7 million tonnes of fresh produce on the UK market was imported, the majority of which was from the EU, but due to the increase in demand for exotic produce the door was still open.
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Imported produce undergoes tough scrutiny when entering the UK and traceability and pesticide residues are big issues.
Ian Harrison, Technical Director at IPL, who control the supply chain for ASDA and Walmart, said that it is not about what the retailers want but what the consumer wants. The main factors are price, quality and availability, underpinned by service.
Ian Harrison and Richard McIntosh
Richard McIntosh from DEFRA spoke about the need to protect the UK's plants and forestry, explaining why the import requirements were in place and why it is important for exporters to show compliance with EU requirements and identify emerging problems at an early stage.
Tomatoes, grapes and citrus may become subject to new psytosanitary requirements this year.
Sameer Bandali from the Plant Health Team at Heathrow Airport explained how random checks were done on samples of consignments arriving at the airport and how 80% of the problems occurred due to labelling and 20% due to quality problems.
Sameer Bandali and Mark Buckle
Alex Schofield from the Food Standards Agency told the audience that the number of checks is determined in Brussels by the 28 member states of the EU and how some products get more stringent checks for particular issues which are found frequently.
The subject then turned to logistics: How to get your produce to the UK?. Eik Schuster from Sea Trade gave an outline of the services which Sea Trade offers and the changes in the logistics industry due the introduction of bigger container ships.
Alex Scholfield - Food Standards Agency
James Leeson from DP World London Gateway Port said how there had been major changes in the UK since 2008 when there was a lack of capacity and explained the changes in response to the bigger ships which are now arriving.
Bob Duffy from NFT Distribution said that consumer demand was changing, that people wanted a year round supply of fresh produce. The company has recently opened up a portcentric facility in the South East to supply that part of the country. They look for the quickest route to market.
Mike Parr from Perishable Movements told how the company was on track to move 60 million kg of perishables this year and had opened an office in Kenya and will soon open one in South Africa.
Mike Harpham, Peter Durber, Charlie Hicks, Simon Trewin
Next came a panel discussion with Mike Harpham, Managing Director at Univeg, Peter Durber, Managing Director at Tropifresh, Charlie Hicks, Brand Manager at Total Produce and Simon Trewin, Commercial Director at Pratt's Bananas.
Mike Harpham explained that not all retailers are the same, they all do business differently and exporters need to do their homework and look at what they have to offer. Simon Trewin went on to say it was all about communication and planning and keeping quality high.
Peter Durber, who supplies wholesalers said that 20% of exporters account for 80% of the sales and to be one of those you need to know what makes a product successful and be honest about your supply. Charlie Hicks said you need to understand your customer and your customer's customer, be aware and try to spot the up coming food trends. Watch UK TV, see what's posted on twitter and what the popular chefs are doing.