Enthusiastic visitors at first Vegetable Strategies Congress

On 4 and 5 June, the first edition of the European Vegetable Strategies conference was held in Hotel Bloom, Brussels. The event was organised by Fruchthandel Magazin, Eurofruit and Fresh Produce Journal. On 4 June, an informal evening was held, sponsored by FLASH and LAVA and the Flandria quality label. On Thursday 5 June, more than 100 visitors were welcomed by Chris White of Eurofruit and Kaasten Reh of Fruchthandel. The day was divided into eight sessions and had several speakers, with a special emphasis on vegetables. Retailers took the floor and discussed strategies to better approach consumers; a topic (interaction with consumers) which was addressed in many presentations and discussions. Cooperation in the supply chain and strategies to increase consumption were also discussed.

In the meantime, there was also time for networking while enjoying some healthy snacks. Visitors were enthusiastic about the presentations.

Opening by Kaasten Reh and Chris White

Here are some photos of the event's visitors. This week, several articles will be published regarding the presentations given by the speakers at the conference.

Attentive audience

Frédéric Rosseneu Europatat/Freshfel and Willem Baljeu

A lot of networking taking place

Jo Lambrecht and Filip Fontaine, of BelOrta

Laurien Danckaerts of VBT (left) talked during the event about Responsibly Fresh. On the right, Veerle van der Sypt, of Fresh Trade Belgium

Enrique de los Rios, of the Spanish cooperative Unica (in the middle) and on the right David Del Pino, of Granada La Palma SCA

Kristophe Thijs, of VLAM Germany with Jan Engelen, of Veiling Hoogstraten

A panel discussion about the vegetable market: Filip Fontaine (BelOrta), Enrique de los Rios (Unica, Spain) and Andrew Burgess, of Produce World (UK). Chris White moderates the discussion.