Europe's fresh produce market is becoming increasingly more regimented as the continued rise of modern retailers forces suppliers to abandon the open trading of the past and satisfy increased demand for longer-term, planned procurement deals, especially for importer fruit.
That's the view of Sven Heinsohn, co-founder of leading fresh produce importer-exporter Global Fruit Point, who suggests there are fewer and fewer ad-hoc trading deals to be done on the European market as the continent's major retailers look increasingly to secure reliable, programmed sources of year-round supply of fruit.
'Supermarkets are programming fruit more,' Heinsohn comments. 'You can see that open trading is dying and supermarkets are looking more and more at who is the supplier behind the supplier, at who is the service provider and who is the grower and what products are they doing.'
For Heinsohn, the fear of seeing product go elsewhere – especially to emerging markets outside of Europe – has created a notably different commercial landscape for fresh produce companies in what has become a far more structured trading environment.
Nevertheless, with retail buyers placing more emphasis on certification, food safety and traceability standards, ensuring the right product reaches the shelves now involves a lot more forward planning and predictability, he adds.
'It's very, very structured. The open trade, in my opinion, is coming to a very low level. It will not disappear, but it's becoming less and less.
The theme of the April 2014 issue of Eurofruit is health and includes an exclusive interview with Heinsohn about the need to make fresh fruit and vegetables more appealing to consumers.
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