Paolo Bruni Apo Conerpo CSO

Leaders of the EU Agricultural Co-operatives Confederation (Cogeca) today unanimously elected Paolo Bruni as the organisation's new president for the period 2010–2012.

Mr Bruni, who performs a number of key roles in the fresh produce industry including the vice-presidency of Conserve Italia and the presidency of Apo Conerpo – the largest fruit and vegetable producer organisation in the Emilia-Romagna region – will succeed Gert
Van Dijk, whose term in office expires at the end of 2009.

At a national level, Mr Bruni has been president of Fedagri-Confcooperative since April 2000 and is also president of Italy's leading fresh produce research and marketing organisation Centro Servizi Ortofrutticoli (CSO).

He was appointed as a vice-president of Cogeca in 2005 and two years later became first vice-president.

Meanwhile, Peter Vrisk (Slovenia), Christian Pees (France), Richard McLoughlin (Ireland) and Eduardo Baamonde (Spain) have been respectively elected as Cogeca's first, second, third and fourth vice-presidents.

In addition, Thomas Magnusson (Sweden) has been appointed as coordinator of Cogeca's Presidency Business Forums.