Reporting On... - Revista F&H

F&H International 1 • November 2011
4
Personalities
New position
Global Gap has new
director of Marketing. It
is the Argentinean Flavio
Alzueta who has an ample
experience in the commercialization
of the fruits
and vegetables. Alzueta
has developed part of its
professional work in Spain
like commercial of several
fruits and vegetables companies.
Now it will manage
all the relations with the
distribution chains so that
they know first hand the
benefits of the main plan of
certification in the world:
GlobalGap.
Future
“I have listened during
many years that the wholesalers
are going o disappear
and in my opinion they have
future and are the future”.
These were the words of
Joan Llonch of the Association
of Wholesalers of
Mercabarna during the last
Fruit Attraction. Llonch put
several examples of this
initiative explaining that his
company - Grupo Gavà- is
present in the wholesaler
markets of Poland
and Czech Republic with
“increases of sale of 10-15
per cent a year”.
Efficient promotion
To promote fresh food consumption is absolutely necessary,
even more so since much credibility has been
lost due to the EHEC crisis, says M Peter Hoffmann of
German importer Kölla. Plans like the ‘5 a Day’ scheme
can be a good point of departure but need to be made
much more efficient to get the message through to
consumers.
Sustainability can be fun
As even fruit trade experts can find it somewhat hard
to come to grips with as complex a topic as sustainability,
one has to be grateful to extraordinary communicators
who achieve, in just 45 minutes, to get
across basic ideas and virtually inspire their audience. A
lecture like the one given by Dr. Ludger Breloh (REWE
Group) at the German Conference on Fruits and Vegetables
(last October 21) should be compulsory for all
professionals.
Consumption-
Orientation
The German ‘Fresh Food
Markets’ have been pursuing
a more consumer-oriented
policy. M Reiner Ströbelt,
Head of Administration at the
Cologne Market, says that in
the future the administration
will seek to bring the operators’
profiles more into line with new
consumption tendencies, for
instance via short-term tenancy agreements.
Direct
sourcing
The person in charge of
the purchases of the Ahold
group, Ge Happe, is one
of the top defenders of
the direct work with the
chains of supermarkets.
During the third edition of
Fruit Attraction (Madrid)
he did not doubt in saying
that the wholesalers and
intermediaries must disappear
in their relation with
the chains of supermarkets.
“Therefore the chains will
be more competitive and
the costs in the stands
will decrease”, Happe explained.
Losses
The companies of the
platform of Saint Charles
International have lost 85
million Euros during the
period May-June of 2011
“as a result of the crisis of
the E. Coli”, Alain Barniol,
chairman of the wholesalers
of Saint Charles International,
explained. These
losses were as a result of
the decrease of the prices
and orders.