Fruit News
Israeli company collects the coveted Fruit Logistica Innovation Award for its new exotic fruit
The Aurora Seedless Papaya has won this years Fruit Logistica Innovation Award in Berlin.
The product, from Aviv Flowers Packing House in Israel, saw off nine other finalists to pick-up the prestigious trophy, voted for by visitors to the annual trade show.
The Aurora papaya is described as a unique seedless variety with a rich and balanced taste without the papaya’s typical aftertaste. It has a delicate and pleasant aroma and firm flesh, and is said to have a shelf life longer than that of existing papayas.
The product beat off second-placed Lemoncherry from BelOrta in Belgium, and third-placed DIY Fresh Packs, from Bakker Barendrecht (Univeg Group) in the Netherlands.
The former is a new variety of yellow cherry tomato which features a delicate hint of lemon, while the Fresh Packs help consumers to prepare a meal, soup or side dish using fresh ingredients.
Speaking at the presentation, Fruchthandel managing director Robert Broadfoot said: “It’s a compliment to the success of this award that one or two of the winners have gone on to become household names.”
Aviv Flowers added that its grower had spent over 10 years working “day and night” on his own developing the winning papaya.
SCS Global Services completes third-party audit of Fresh Del Monte’s plantations in Costa Rica and Guatemala
Worldwide certification body SCS Global Services (SCS) has announced that Del Monte Fresh Produce has received Sustainably Grown certification for all of its banana plantations in Costa Rica and Guatemala, as well as its pineapple farms in Costa Rica.
Receiving Sustainably Grown certification for these operations marks the culmination of a multi-year effort by Del Monte to improve and verify its sustainable farming practices in Central America through third-party assessment.
As a result, certified Del Monte pineapples and bananas will now feature the SCS Kingfisher Sustainably Grown certification mark in stores.
First introduced in 2003, the SCS Sustainably Grown certification programme is one of the world’s most strict standards for sustainable agriculture. The standard includes yearly auditing for compliance and emphasises continuous improvement, requiring certified farms to build on their sustainable practices over time.
“Sustainably Grown recognises agricultural operations that are on the cutting edge of sustainable farming,” said Dr Stanley Rhodes, founder and CEO of SCS Global Services. “Del Monte has proven that they are serious about growing bananas and pineapples in ways that minimise environmental impact while ensuring the health and safety of its workers and their communities.”
Del Monte farms receiving Sustainably Grown certification are audited to a rigorous set of environmental, social and quality criteria including, sustainable crop production, ecosystem management and protection, resource conservation and energy efficiency and integrated waste management.
Other factors taken into account include fair labour practices, community benefits, product quality, and product safety and purity.
“Del Monte Fresh is committed to embracing sustainable agriculture and making environmental conservation and fair labor practices a major part of our banana and pineapple supply chain,” said Hans Sauter, vice-president corporate research & development and agricultural services for Del Monte. “Achieving Sustainably Grown certification assures our customers that they are receiving produce that is grown in a responsible way.”
Certified Del Monte bananas and pineapples featuring the Sustainably Grown Kingfisher certification mark will begin appearing on store shelves in Europe and the United States in 2015.
Fresh produce giant has announced its fourth investment in North America with 50% stake in Canadian Gambles Group.
Total Produce has secured a 50% stake in the Canadian fresh produce firm Gambles Group as its fourth investment in North America.
Toronto-headquartered Gambles, which was founded by Tom Hughes and Wayne Giles in 1989 and now employs 280 staff, recorded sales of CAD$170m (€119m) in 2014.
The company supplies local and imported produce delivered daily throughout Ontario to the retail, wholesale and foodservices sectors.
It operates out of the Ontario Food Terminal and a 65,000 sq ft distribution facility in Toronto.
President Jeff Hughes, along with Rob Giles, Rick Ashford and Richard Rose as vice presidents, will remain as shareholders of the business and will continue to be key members of the executive management team.
Carl McCann, chairman of Total Produce, said: “This transaction further broadens our North American operations. We look forward to working with the excellent people in Gambles over the coming years.”
Hughes said: “We are very happy to partner with the Total Produce Group. Bringing Total Produce into our business will further strengthen what we have developed over many years. We believe it is a combination that will benefit all stakeholders, including our growers, suppliers, staff and, of course, our customers.”
Toucan Fruit has started importing the product in greater quantities from Colombia, Thailand and the Dominican Republic
Exotics importer Toucan Fruit is stepping up its supply of sapodillas for the UK market.
While the Indian variety of sapodilla – which is described as having a taste somewhere in between caramel and chocolate – has been available on these shores previously, Toucan Fruit has started importing the product in greater quantities from Thailand, Colombia and the Dominican Republic.
Luxury goods store Harrods, department store Harvey Nichols, and TV chef Yotam Ottolenghi’s favourite London greengrocer, Clifton Greens, are among those to have bought sapodillas from Toucan Fruit.
Soraya Bahrami, co-founder and CEO of Toucan Fruit, which is based in London but imports and exports products to a range of destinations worldwide, said: “We have been working with our farmers to grow and gain access to these fruits for some time. We have had a lot of requests for them over the last couple of years.
“I think they are gaining in popularity because as people are travelling more to far-flung destinations, they are gaining exposure to these fruits. Additionally, they are now being grown commercially to export standards.”
Professional chef, Aaron Craze will help with PR activity for the growers’ association and its Love Your Greens campaign
Jamie Oliver’s protégée and CBBC star Aaron Craze has been unveiled as the face of the ‘Love Your Greens’ campaign.
The Brassica Growers’ Association (BGA) is hoping that with his popularity among children and his experience as a professional chef, he will prove to be a resourceful asset and member to the campaign.
Craze will be integrated into “Love Your Greens” activity to help raise awareness and drive consumer engagement within the category.
Activity for 2015 will include new and exclusive branded content for the website featuring Craze, radio broadcast activity, PR, and social media (Facebook, Twitter etc) support.
Craze will also be helping to connect children with the category by taking on an ambassador role for the campaign’s brand new ‘Tuck In’ recipe competition, launching later this month.
The competition is in line with the Love Your Greens campaign to educate consumers on the importance of a healthy, balanced diet.
Craze said: “As a father myself, I know how important it is to ensure that kids have a healthy, balanced diet packed full of fresh fruit and vegetables. The Love Your Greens campaign is all about engaging with kids, getting them excited about cooking from scratch, and educating them on how healthy and versatile brassica vegetables are.
“If I can help inspire kids and get them as excited as I am about cauliflower, broccoli, swede, Brussels sprouts and cabbages, I’ll be well chuffed.”
Matt Rawson, BGA chairman, added: “Educating children and young people on the benefits of brassica vegetables, and how great they taste, is key to our Love Your Greens campaign.
“We’re delighted to have Aaron on board to help us spread this message and encourage children nationwide to get cooking and create some delicious, healthy dishes using brassicas.”
Craze presents the CBBC shows Junior Bake Off and Pet School.He also hosts the show Rude Boy Food, which was shown on the Good Food Channel in the UK.
After leaving school with no formal qualifications, Craze rose to prominence after joining one of Oliver’s cookery courses, culminating in him graduating with merit and running some of Oliver’s business interests.
Premium retailer said food sales in Christmas week were up a record 17%, and like-for-like sales grew by 0.1%
Marks and Spencer’s food business grew like-for-like sales by 0.1% in the 13 weeks to 27 December.
Total food sales rose by 2.8%, while sales in the Christmas week were up 17%.
The premium retailer said it had seen “record Christmas sales” in food, which “strongly outperformed the market”.
Despite a strong performance in the category, total like-for-like UK sales for the company fell by 2.7%, after a terrible performance in its general merchandise division, which includes womenswear, and where like-for-like sales were down 5.8%.
“Our food business delivered another excellent quarter, significantly outperforming the market by around three percentage points,” said CEO Marc Bolland.
“We saw record sales over the festive period, up 17% in the key Christmas week. Customers once again turned to us for our highly differentiated food offer, combining the best of quality, seasonal speciality and convenience, all at competitive prices.
“We launched nearly 750 new products giving customers more choice than ever, with record results in turkeys, party food, desserts and deli,” he said.
Bolland said disruption at the company’s Castle Donington distribution centre “strongly impacted” .com and general merchandise performance in December.
And he said overall international business was “heavily impacted” by the worsening currency and economic issues across its Middle East and Russia franchise region, but the business had performed well in other key markets such as India.
M&S will report its fourth quarter trading results on 2 April 2015.
Study of 6,000 Australian women claims to show a link between fruit consumption and the development of depressive symptoms
Women who eat fewer than two portions of fruit a day face a higher risk of developing depression, a new study claims to have shown.
University of Queensland professor Gita Mishra said the findings of its six-year study of more than 6,000 Australian women revealed a clear link between fruit consumption and the development of depressive symptoms.
Mishra said: “We found that women who ate at least two servings of fruit a day were less likely to suffer from depression than women who ate fewer servings, even after taking into account other factors such as smoking, alcohol, body mass index, physical activity, marital status and education.
“We also found that eating two or more servings of fruit a day protected women from developing depression in the future.”
Mishra added that researchers had not found a link between vegetable intake and depression.
“More research is needed on the different effects of fruit and vegetables, but this may be because fruit has higher levels of anti-inflammatory compounds and antioxidants, such as resveratrol, which is not found in vegetables.”
She said the findings highlighted the importance of a diet high in fruit to avoid the development of depression in middle age.
“Women experience depression at about twice the rate of men, and the rate of depression is growing rapidly.
“By 2030 it is expected to be one of the world’s top three diseases, making it a priority area for public health interventions.”
Researchers surveyed participants in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health, an Australian Government-funded project that is one of the world’s largest and longest-running studies of women’s health and wellbeing.
The research is published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
In January a £250,000 marketing campaign launches to remind shoppers to buy homegrown fruit
January will see a major marketing campaign launched to boost consumption of English apples, with £250,000 worth of print and online activity planned.
In the face of stiff competition created by the Russian ban on produce from various European countries, the UK apple trade organisation has secured new funding to help remind shoppers to back British.
English Apples and Pears Ltd will kick off the campaign the first week of January 2015 with a new website going live on January 5 (www.loveenglishapples.co.uk).
Alongside print advertising in magazines such as Bella, Good Food Magazine, Delicious, and Olive, there will be radio advertising on Heart FM, all aimed at the family market.
Adrian Barlow, CEO English Apples and Pears Ltd said that at a time when growers’ margins are under pressure due to the problems caused by the Russian ban, it was important to get the message across to shoppers to buy English apples.
“It is much to their credit that English growers have been prepared to make this investment to develop demand and consumption,” he added.
“Increased demand will strengthen all market sectors and by working closely with our customers we expect this activity to improve results for all companies in the supply chain whilst meeting the needs of an even wider range of consumers. It is intended that similar activity should be implemented in future seasons but starting earlier in the autumn.”
New winter range claims to be first time LED technology has been used to expand British tomato season on commercial scale
Sainsbury’s has said it is the first major retailer to grow British tomatoes at this time of year using LED lights.
The UK’s third largest supermarket said it has extended the British tomato season with the largest range of UK-grown tomatoes available through the winter months.
Its new Taste the Difference winter range includes new yellow cherry tomato Sunglow, large vine tomato Jubilee, cherry tomato on the vine Vittoria, and a Best of British mixed colour cherry pack.
The news comes as Sainsbury’s continues to expand its British offering as part of its 20×20 Sustainability Plan, in which it pledged to double the amount of British food its sells by 2020.
Nigel Bartle, chairman of the British Tomato Growers Association said: “Growers have been working tirelessly hard both with researchers and Sainsbury’s to extend the season and this year thanks to LED technology will be able to produce more fresh British tomatoes than ever before.”
“This is the first time a large-scale commercial nursery has used this technology in the UK.”
Sainsbury’s product technologist, Melissa Jones, said: “By working closely with our growers we’ve been able to extend the British tomato season – which takes a lot of skill and investment from our growers.”
She said growers used a mixture of sodium and LED lights to help plants to grow and tomatoes to ripen.
“It’s important we offer British products when they taste their best and we know our customers care about buying British too. This range of tomatoes is another example of growing more of our favourite fruit and veg closer to home,” added Jones.