Updated 17:00 Western European time
Three years ago, in Europe's leading fresh produce port city, Antwerp, the wind was blowing in a different direction.
Having spent the day at FRESH2008, Eurofruit and its guest delegates were still reviewing comments made by Univeg's then CEO Hein Deprez, who had addressed an international fresh produce industry conference for the very first time. With the global credit crisis tightening its grip on financial institutions around the world, debate in the ballroom of the Antwerp Hilton had centred on the potential power shift that might occur as retailers, the predominant force in Europe's fruit and vegetable supply chain, found themselves confronted with a huge rise in demand elsewhere in the world.
'The enormous growth in world population and strong economic growth in the past few years have resulted in a major increase in purchasing power that will have a lasting and long-term effect on the price evolution of food crops,' Deprez (pictured) had suggested, a price evolution which, he argued, would lead to a major increase in demand for farmland. 'There will be a shift in the allocation of hectares in the next few years, which will have a major impact on the production of fruit and vegetables.'
So what happened between then and now? Well, that very same evening in Moscow, beamed live via satellite to the Eurofruit team and several FRESH2008 delegates outside Anwterp's Old Trafford bar, a tragedy of Greek proportions played out. John Terry stepped up to take a penalty which would have won his Chelsea side the Champions League and confirmed the arrival of Roman Abramovich as one of football's major success stories. As it turned out, he slipped at the vital moment, allowing Manchester United to seize victory. Things don't always turn out exactly as people predict.
The burgeoning demand Deprez spoke of was certainly there in emerging markets – China in particular – but it would be accompanied by a startling drop-off in the level of consumer spending being sustained in Europe and North America. Just a few months on from the Antwerp meeting, Lehman Brothers like Terry slipped on its precipitous, arrogant footing and tumbled into ignominy. Consumer confidence was already haemmorhaging, but its flow out of the market went from a trickle to a torrent.
Deprez stepped down as CEO in 2009 and, although he remained as chairman of the Univeg group of companies, his influence on the day-to-day management of Univeg's fruit and vegetable business was widely known to have declined.
Now, at the end of 2011, the group's directors have announced plans to reduce their focus on production and allow others to invest in those areas. Belgian newspaper Standaard quotes 8,000ha of plantations as already sold, but the company has denied this is true, arguing that it will continue to develop production projects under its new Univeg Fruitpartners investment vehicle. But, it does seem to be true that as many as 35 of those working at its headquarters in Sint-Katelijne-Waver, Belgium, will depart by mid-2013, with around half of its 9,000-strong international workforce reported to be on the way out eventually. The crew of the Univeg ship has effectively engineered an about-turn, a decision apparently prompted by a need to return to profitability, manage interest payments on the group's considerable debt leveraging and secure funds for future investment.
'Trading and production are two different business models,' commented current chief executive Theo De Kool in this morning's edition of Standaard, by way of an explanation. 'In recent years we didn't invest enough almost everywhere, because we did not have the money,' he added. 'Therefore, our ownership of production will be reduced, although we will continue to work with them on long-term agreements.'
All of this has happened without their erstwhile skipper Deprez at the helm. The ethos of vertical integration he espoused has been thrown overboard.
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