And here we are, the week after Fruit Logistica 2018, ready to sum up. But first of all, two words to describe what is Fruit Logistica and this year numbers.

FRUIT LOGISTICA is the leading trade fair for the global fruit trade and has been held annually since 1993. In 2018, over 3,100 exhibitors from more than 80 countries and more than 75,000 buyers and trade visitors from 130 countries attended. For those you don’t know this year we had a smaller but very cute stand in hall 8.2 B-15 easy to recognise thanks to our unique colours.

n Wednesday morning one detail was already certain – this year Fruit Logistica would have been a massive event. With a really busy Thursday, as usual it was really difficult to walk throughout the halls, this year the Wednesday numbers of visitors were surprising! We had never seen Messe Berlin so crowed before on Wednesday. Maybe it was because last year there were two events at the same time in Berlin and strikes at the airport but this year really, we were impressed! The doors opened at 9 am and suddenly every stand was full of people – very good for all of the exhibitors, included us of course!

Moreover, there was a new hall (hall 26) this year with all the South African with some Latin American countries exhibitors.

A very beautiful and busy Pink Lady stand (always a guarantee!) thanks to their fashionable bags for women and a beautiful model ready to take picture with men!

Compared to last year there is just one objection we would like to highlight: We haven’t spotted the same number of creative stands – so less fruit and veg constructions and designs and nothing really unexpected.

However, the award for the best sculpture goes to the monkey surrounded by fruit and veg (that on Friday afternoon was exposed to a massive theft and left desolated and alone!)

Another aspect that we appreciated much this year are the conferences organised during all the event. We decided to attend two of them, one on the Tuesday afternoon (even before the Fruit Logistica start) “Innovation, inspiration and insight” and another one on the Wednesday morning “traditional PR or social media?”, but there were for everyone thanks to the multitude of topics. Both of them really interesting and enjoyable, with well-finished content and prepared speakers – also with headphones with simultaneous translators on to let everyone understand the speeches. But we will talk about these two conferences in the next few days. Anyway, well done Fresh Produce forum!

As every year there was also the most important award of this industry: Fruit Logistica Innovation Award (FLIA) competition, presented for the thirteenth time. The award celebration is traditionally the event that closes the exhibition and, as every year, we attended it to spot live who the winner was. Various and different candidates, from new products to new machines and to celebrate the Olympics this year the awards were Gold, Silver and Bronze instead of first, second and third places.

This year winner was “Pook Coconut Chips” from PookSpaFoods in Germany: the crispy crisps, made from Thai coconut without any oil or fat, are available in Original Sea Salt, Mango Sea Salt and Chocolate Sea Salt flavours. They are vegan, gluten-free and free from preservatives.

The silver went to the dark brown tomato “Adora” from HM Clause from Spain. This tomato is a variant of the variety Marmande, a particularly robust old ribbed beef tomato variety that ripens very early. What sets the new Adora apart is its balanced, intensely sweet and sour taste, excellent shelf-life, firmness and good nutritional values.

The bronze went to the grass paper from the German paper mill Scheufelen. This organic packaging material consists of up to 50 percent fresh grass fibre and is completely recyclable and biodegradable. The use of grass fibres, a renewable raw material, should help reduce energy and water consumption.

Last but not least we would like to thank everyone for support and to come and visit us during this amazing event!

And don’t forget: this year there will be also the first edition of China Fruit Logistica, in addition to the traditional Fruit Logistica in Berlin and the Asia Fruit Logistica.

See you next year in Berlin!