Fruit Logistica 2022: Our takeaways
Earlier this week we attended the annual fresh produce show of the year, Fruit Logistica in Berlin. The three-day event saw exhibitors and trade visitors from 86 countries come together again. This was the first face to face Fruit Logistica event since before the pandemic making it even more special. The team were finally able to see the majority of our customers and suppliers under one roof.
Fruit Logistica covers every single sector of the fresh produce business and provides a complete picture of the latest innovations, products and services at every link in the international supply chain. It offers superb networking and contact opportunities to the key decision-makers in every sector of the industry.
This year we sent our team out to the event, hear their recap of the three-day event:
We would like to start off by saying what an incredible job the Fruit Logistica team did with organising this year’s event. We all felt as though life as we knew it pre-pandemic resumed too normal. With this in mind, we did notice plenty of sanitisation stations.
In comparison to previous years, we felt as though this year had less exhibitors. It almost felt like many businesses were testing the waters and seeing what this year’s attendance was like before committing to exhibiting next year. This is understandable since many businesses will be wary of exhibiting post Covid.
We took the slightly quieter halls as a positive because it was easier to meet both existing and new suppliers and customers. In previous years there would be 3 – 4 people deep queues on each stand meaning you couldn’t see what they were offering and couldn’t meet as easily. We found no need to book meetings in and spot new opportunities.
This year we noticed that those attending seemed to come more focused on the business in hand. Our overall consensuses were that we gained more from this year’s Fruit Logistica event in comparison to previous years. The fresh produce industry is still thriving with plenty of new and innovative products coming to the market.
We regularly purchase from all across the world and after walking around the show noticed a reduced presence of exhibitors within the Egyptian, Thailand, African and Guatemalan halls. This could be down to Ramadan since the show has been pushed back from its usual February date to April. We also noticed a lack of smaller companies and instead only well-established businesses exhibiting. This again could be down to our previous point of businesses attending the show and assessing if they can justify exhibiting next year.
Overall, we had a fantastic three days at Fruit Logistica 2022 and we cannot wait to introduce some exciting new lines. The Nationwide Produce team will always have a presence at Fruit Logistica, so we will see you next year on the 8/9/10th February 2023.
