Current president of Apo Conerpo takes up the reins following a challenging decade for predecessor Roberto Cera
Davide Vernocchi is the new president of Finaf, Europe’s largest association of fruit and vegetable producer organisations.
The current president of Apo Conerpo takes over from Roberto Cera, who has led the group for more than ten years and was himself previously president of the Italian producer organisation which Vernocchi now leads.
“I am taking up an important baton,” the new appointee commented, “and I do so with a sense of responsibility and a spirit of service towards a system that, thanks to the work carried out in recent years, has been able to face imposing challenges without losing cohesion and vision.”
He said he was committed to strengthening Finaf’s role as a “strategic point of reference” for its members POs, in what remained a difficult commercial environment.
“A challenging context such as the current one requires ever greater capacity for dialogue, innovation and resilience,” he added.
Finaf was created in 2001 by two producer organisations – Apo Conerpo in Italy and Conserve Gard (First International Association Fruit) in France – and counts more than 9,000 fresh and processed produce companies among its members.
It achieved its current ‘super-association’ status and scale in 2012 through a merger with Gruppo Mediterraneo in Italy, in a move that brought together more than 15,000 growers who produce almost 2mn tonnes of product per year.
