London Produce Show 2022

The team from AgriCoat were part of the IFE exhibition with their coatings to extend shelf life of fruit and vegetables by 7-12 days. Craig Edwards, Robert Round and Simon Matthews.

Janine Hatfield and Sarah Gibson were on the Westfalia stand, avocado supply is coming from Morocco and Chile at the moment. The ladies were also giving visitors gelato ice-cream to show how diverse avocados can be, it can also use avocados which are not quite class 1 so nothing goes to waste.

Faia is a group of four companies which have come together producing various products including ginger shots, ginger, onion and garlic purees. Hendrikse, Sander Kleinjan, Bert van Gelder, Charlotte Roussel, Pol Roussel, Arjan Biesheuvel and Jan Vandenabeele.

Nic Jooste from Immerse which helps companies find their way through sustainability with marketing and communications and finding strategies which fit the small and medium sized companies.

Elisa Fasoli and Julie Jenkens were promoting Californian Prunes. There are 600 growers and handlers with 99% of prunes exported from the US grown in California. main export markets are Italy, Japan, China and the UK. The ladies were explaining the diverse uses and health benefits of prunes.

The Devos group enjoyed catching up with customers and meeting new ones. The UK market is important and fits the company’s products well as it demands high quality. Ward Verbeck from VLAM and Louis de Cleene from The Devos Group.

Etive were promoting the tracking and monitoring device which give real time in-transit, load tracking and monitoring, humidity, temperature and shock as well as an alert system. On the stand were Matthew Holland and Paul de Haan.

Juan Carlos Yepez Franco was on the Ecuador stand promoting the country’s produce.

Jan Engelen, Bart van Bael and Wout Roovers from Hoogstraten. The Belgian growe exports strawberries, tomatoes and bell peppers to the UK.

The New Covent Garden Market stand was looking beautiful with a display of fresh produce. Tommy Leighton who does PR and comms for the market was joined by Nigel Jenny from Fresh Produce Consortium and Ella Nickerson was on the stand with MOMO kombucha.

Emmerson were present at the show, Shane Austin was on the stand with the new range of 3 USB loggers which measure air temperature, temperature and humidity.

Sensitech have been exhibiting at LPS since the first show. David Vaught and Adam Twiner were at the stand with their Airsafe real time products.

The Select Master from Marco is available as a full and semi-automatic machine, it is a weighing machine for multiple packs, it selects the best combination to suit the combined weight and can reduce the number of operators from 5 to 2.

Veg Power is supported by a large number of producers and growers as well as retailers, it’s aim is to encourage people to eat more vegetables. Rebecca Stevens, Dan Parker and David Alexander.

Andreas Duany, Miluska Castaneda Grandules and Aaron Meas were on hand to tell visitors about fresh produce from Peru.

Chiquita are longstanding exhibitors at the LPS, David Earnest said it was always good to bring the brand back to the customer. The different setting of the show was a chance to gain new customers.

Another familiar brand is ProChile, the organisation has 50 offices worldwide and the UK is the 4th largest export market for Chilean fruit. Nicolas Poblete was at the stand.

G’s were back at the show, Anthony Gardiner said the new venue presented an opportunity to meet potential clients from smaller companies and wholesalers. Nick Padley and Adam Reddit joined Anthony on the stand.

Marco brought a range of weighing equipment to the show the TMH touch screen terminal is ideal for grapes and tomatoes, it takes a photo of the product while weighing which can be used to trace the punnet and operator if it fails quality control further down the line. The Select Master was also on display. The team at Marco: Rubens De Castro, Jemma Coventry, Andy Connor, Sarah Mead and Jon Heard. — Marco brought a range of weighing equipment to the show the TMH touch screen terminal is ideal for grapes and tomatoes, it takes a photo of the product while weighing which can be used to trace the punnet and operator if it fails quality control further down the line. The Select Master was also on display.
The team at Marco: Rubens De Castro, Jemma Coventry, Andy Connor, Sarah Mead and Jon Heard.

It was good to see companies from Australia at the IFE, they had a varied products including citrus fruit from Nutrano. Tania Chapman said Nutrano has been exporting to the UK for years and it was good to be back on the road and reconnect with clients. She is hoping that if the UK-AU trade deal goes through they will see a reduction in the 16% tariffs which now exist.

BiteRoit were also on the Australia stand - Ben Harris was promoting the cherry juice which is not yet exported to the UK market.

Wilson’s Country were on the Northern Ireland stand in the IFE part of the show, promoting the ready to eat selection. Joanne Weir said Northern Ireland growers were worried about the coming season with the fertilizer shortage and since Brexit they are no longer able to import Scottish seed potatoes, there is other seed available but this may lead to problems in quality. Joanne was joined on the stand by Clodagh McAlinden.

The team from JBT were present at the IFE Manufacturing show.

Ian Forbes - Trade and Marketing for the California Walnut Commission was promoting the product to the UK market. Nut-based snacking is on the increase and new flavours and ways to use walnuts are growing.

Didier Lepoutre from BelOrta was glad to be back in London as the UK is an important market for them. The company exports tomatoes, strawberries, apples, pears and bell peppers.

The UK is also an important market for Belgian company Vegro who export produce to the UK retailers and wholesalers among others. Diederik Bogaert said it was good to catch up with customers again, but it was not possible to supply the smaller companies anymore due to the cost and restrictions of Brexit.

Pan United has taken part at the LPS every year since the start, the garlic, ginger and sweet potato specialist sells under the Apollo brand. Nilay Kamdar said they have not suffered over the past two years as they know their product and were prepared for Brexit.

Italian company Peviani were at the show promoting grapes, watermelons, cauliflower and broccoli. Saverio Fuccillo, Ilaria Monteverdi and Pietro Beccaro were at the stand.

At the moment Serbia does not export apples to the UK but Alexsandar Pavlovic from Apple World hopes to change that with a year-round supply.

Sara Grasso from Oranfrizer said that the UK was one of their best markets, the company grows blood oranges for juicing, also lemons and pomegranates.

Zummo made a big impact with the various juicing machines. The Zummo orange juicing machine is now in the UK and the company brought along an apple juicer and a pineapples juicer. The Viva is a juicer for use in bakeries, coffee shops etc. Victor Ruis explains how the machine works.

Felix Alverez with the Zummo orange juicing machine.

London is seen as the innovation hub by chefs from around the world and a lot of them visit the IFE according to Paul Da Costa Greaves from Koppert Cress. Many chefs use the produce from Koppert and Paul said they work together to find answers for chefs and understand the needs of the companies which use the products.

Will Boers from Westlands said that in this new venue there many more their type of customers from the catering trade.

Jim Prevor, who is the force behind the London Produce Show show said it was great to be part of the biggest show in town and that chefs use fresh produce but don't often visit fresh produce trade shows. Jim confirmed that the London Produce Show will take place as part of the IFE again next year.

Bernhard Baumgartner and Bruno Cheval from CleanGreen Solutions gave a talk on Making Indoor Agriculture Scalable.

Joe Shaw Robert from Kantar Worldpanel spoke about What is Fuelling Produce Growth at Retail.