Canadian counsellor of agriculture, food and fisheries Rick Cooper said that the UK is a prominent market with the reason for coming to the expo is to maintain a visible presence and test the demand for their produce. “Canadian identifiable products have a good wholesome image in the UK and we plan to use this to market our produce,” Cooper said.
“Canada has been the largest exporter of wild blue berries to the UK for the last 15 years, mainly used in the baking and dairy trades. We also supply fresh cherries from British Columbia to fill the supermarket demand in the season. Apples are our largest fruit crops, followed by blueberries, grapes and cranberries with total fruit exports increasing by 14 per cent over the last decade.” Cooper said that particularly for Quebec the UK is a prominent market.
La Maison Bergevin is a cranberry grower and processor, now seeking a distributor for its products in the UK and European markets. Exhibiting for the first time in the UK, the Quebec-based family-run company produces 1,000 tonnes of cranberries each year from the fifty-acre farm and has total control over the fruit growth and the processing. The company offers a range of cranberry products to the food service sector including supermarkets, health food stores, bakers and restaurants in Canada, Japan and New Zealand and has its eye on the UK as an important growth market.
Company president Marie-Claude Bergevin said: “our cranberry products are already known in the UK and are available on a limited scale in the UK but the interest here is growing. The UK is an important export market for us and are looking for a local trading partner so we can take advantage of the export opportunities available to us”.
La Maison Bergevin offers a variety of products to the food services industry including fresh, frozen and dried cranberries, purees, fillings and juices. The main lines that Bergevin are promoting at the expo are the dry frozen cranberries which are sold in bulk drums (to reduce shipping costs), cranberry juice and the new filling and purees product lines developed he lines developed for the restaurant, baking and pastry sectors.
The UK distributor would be able to repackage and distribute the frozen and dried berries to suit the demands of the local market. With the success in Quebec, followed by Japan, Bergevin is very optimistic about its expansion into the UK, and hopefully spring boarding into Europe.
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