Belgian growers sceptical about fruit and vegetable chances in 'supermarket-drive'

The General meetings of the Belgian professional federations Fresh Trade Belgium, Belgapom and Vegebe took place on Tuesday the 18th of June. Followed by this was a collective meeting of FVP House the umbrella group of the three professional federations in which Olivier Dauvers gave a presentation on the spectacular growth of the 'drive' among retailers in France. Here the consumer can place their order on the internet and pick up the items at a time of their choice in a shop, or a so-called 'drive'. In France the government has now 'stepped in' and besides a building permit, you must now also possess a special 'drive-permit'.

Romain Cools, secretary of Belgapom, indicated in the introduction that this is a development which is also very important for our sector. "As this is successful in France, it may also become popular in Belgium. In the fruit and vegetable sector there is the doubt about whether the chilled chain is controlled properly when it comes to transporting these products."

Olivier Dauvers is a well known French editor and has been following the wholesale distribution since 1990. He has written for the magazines 'Lineares' and Rayon Boissons, among others. He indicates that the drive-phenomenon started in 1996. "Auchan in Luxembourg put its drinks in the car park. Here the consumer could drive in and the drink would be loaded up. The manager of Auchan in France saw profit in this, and wanted to organise something similar in France. In 2000 he opened a similar concept in France. Placing an order was still done on the spot and not online, so people still had to wait while the staff collected the order."

"The first real 'drive' belonged to Chronodrive and was introduced in 2004. Since then the phenomenon has been spreading in France, and various retailers have opened 'drives'. Since 2011 there has been a huge increase in them, and nowadays 2 'drives' are opened per day on average. The advantage for the consumer is that they no longer have to pay for this service. Another important factor is that people don't want to lose any more time. This trend is expected to continue over the next few years. As a supermarket it is almost impossible not to participate in this. A business which does not offer a 'drive', will lose customers. Cora, Intermarche, Carrefour, Auchan, Leclerc, everyone has 'drives'. The total turnover of the 'drives' is now at 3.5 billion Euro per year. Those with the largest share in this market are Leclerc, Auchan and Chronodrice. It's not a service, it's a new sales method." 

According to Olivier there are different types of 'drives'. "It is a challenge for a supermarket to keep this profitable. The real ones, those comparable to McDonalds drive thrus, are located in 'shopping areas' and those in which a separate picking magazine has been invested in, will survive. There are also suppliers which 'pick' their products in the supermarket itself, but this is slower and the labour costs are much higher."

After his account Olivier debated with representatives from the fruit and vegetables trade and the processing industry. These were Vincent Marly of Pinguin, Guy de Meyer from Demargro and Gino Vantieghem from the Ruris Group. The main question here was whether the 'drives' were also suitable for frozen and fresh fruit and vegetable trading. Vincent Marly indicated that the cold chain is well organised for the drive, but this had to be clearly communicated to the consumer. According to Gino Vantieghem people are reluctant to buy potatoes, vegetables and fruit through a 'drive'. "We need to find out why. It may be even more difficult for the fresh market to to define yourself as a supplier at the 'drive'," Guy de Meyer views the phenomenon sceptically: "I don't see a huge market for this in Belgium. I think frozen would be alright, but people want to see fresh products before they buy them." According to Olivier fresh products are suitable for 'drive' and people will buy them. "At Leclerc the share of fresh products bough in the 'drive' is the same as in the supermarket itself. Why wouldn't it work in Belgium if it works in France?" The discussion about a possible success in Belgium continued for a while. The majority believed that it is more difficult to get into the 'drive' as a supplier as there are less references than in a shop. The function of a brand was also touched upon. Olivier indicated that it's definitely different and more difficult for fruit and vegetable products compared to 'normal' products such as Nutella, but there are definitely chances."

After the presentation it was announced that two presidents were to leave, namely those of the federations Belgapom and Vegebe. Antoon Wallays of Belgapom and Dirk Decoster of Vegebe were spoken to by Bart Naeyaert, representative of the department of Agrilcutre for West Flanders. These gentlemen were thanked for their dedication and meaningful work for the sector. Antoon and Dirk had cooperation between the various federations high on their list. The men themselves also spoke a word of gratitude. Both received a memento of their presidency. 

The departing presidents Antoon Wallays and Dirk Decoster with their partners

Antoon Wallays was company leader of Agristo in Hulste and Tilburg, president of Belgapom for 7 years, and in last few years he was active in the section processing. He expanded Belgapom further to the voice of the Belgian potato trade and processing, inside various governments in Belgium as well as in the food industry and wholesales. Now the Belgian potato processing has grown to be the biggest exporter of frozen chips in the world, partially due a mix of tradition and innovation.
Antoon is also the president of Vegaplan, which is responsible for the quality system for the vegetable primary production. He is also a member of the board of the European Federation of potato processing EUPPA. Finally, as president of the association FVPhouse, he is one of the architects of the cooperation between the three Belgian professional associations for the wholesale and processing of potatoes, vegetables and fruit. Within Belgapom it is tradition for the presidency to rotate between the departments of trade and processing. Marc Seru (Marc Seru potato trader Veurne) will succeed Antoon Wallays as president of Belgapom. The Seru family has a rich tradition in the Belgian potato sector and Marc has been a member of the Belgapom board for section trade. The Belgapom board consists of: (for the trade section) Marc Bauden, Bart Muyshondt, Rik Tanghe, Heike Valcke, Gino Vantieghem en Peter Van Steenkiste, and (for the processing section) Jan Clarebout, Wim Lannoey, Carlo Mylle, Luc Raes, Erwin Wuyts and Martin Van de Ven.

After a career in Belgian vegetable processing - conserves as well as frozen - which has spanned multiple decades and in which he founded the then VGB with Jozef Ryckeboer, Dirk Decoster is saying goodbye to Vegebe and the vegetable processing industry. Bernard Haspeslagh (Ardo) will succeed him as president of Vegebe. In years gone by Dirk Decoster encouraged the West Flanders frozen vegetable sector to not just replace the vegetable conserve sector, but also to help build the most important production zone for frozen vegetables in Europe. Over a quarter of all European frozen vegetables are produced in Belgium. Together with the branches of these West Flanders companies in other countries in the EU there are worth over half of the total European production. These family companies built this success together with the agriculturists and the horticulturists, the brokering and the suppliers, in which quality care and the most modern production techniques joined forces.

Dirk Decoster also lay at the basis of the professional development of Vegebe, through a merger between processing and trade on the one hand and cooperation with Belgapom and Fresh Trade Belgium within FVPhouse on the other. He was also at the basis of the quality system industry vegetables, which was developed into the current IKKB standard of Vegaplan. He also guided Vegebe into the non evident practice of the European GMO fruits and vegetables in founding the producers organisations. Dirck Decoster ended his career in the vegetable sector as company leader of Dujardin Foods (previously Unifrost) in Koolkamp and also functioned for three years as president of the Belgian federation of the food industry Fevia. Today he still has an important role within the Belgian communication chain of the food sector.

Dirk Decoster will be succeeded as Vegebe president by Bernard Haspeslagh (Ardo). Bernard Haspeslagh, who,together with his brother Jan, is at the head of the European vegetable processor Ardo with locations in Belgium and many other EU member states, will succeed Dirk Decoster as general chairman of Vegebe. 
The Vegebe board consists of Bernard Haspeslagh (general chairman), Koen Dejonghe (Greenyard Foods), Yves De Vinck (Begro-Dicogel) en Daniel Verduyn (Verduyn). 

The collaboration with the Secretariat through the back office of FVPhouse will be continued through Romain Cools, who remains general secretary of Belgapom and Vegebe.

Afterwards there was a networking event and an extensive reception.