Fruitnet.com's partner publications FRESH PRODUCE JOURNAL, EUROFRUIT, ASIAFRUIT and AMERICAFRUIT have teamed up to publish a series of special interviews to coincide with the FIFA World Cup, featuring a member of the fresh produce industry from each of the 32 nations involved in the tournament.
Today, it's Vince Brullo of Australia Fruits and Felipe Juillerat of Chile's Vital Berry Marketing, ahead of their teams' Group B clash later today (13 June):
What is your firm’s world-beating service or product?
Vince Brullo:Australia Fruits have been exporting for the past 11 years with key markets in Asia and the Middle East. Our key products are cherries, grapes, citrus, broccoli. We also specialise in mixed air/sea shipments for supermarkets and the foodservice industry. We are in the process of expanding our operations, with imports, farming, technology and packaging departments to open soon.
Felipe Juillerat: Our company is all about berries. Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and strawberries. We’ve been bringing berries to our customers all over the world for 30 years.
What does the World Cup mean to people in your country?
VB:The World Cup is followed by more and more Australians each time Australia qualifies for the event. Australians are sporting mad and will follow and support our players all the way.
FJ:Football being a national sport, the World Cup for us is the most exciting sporting event of the year and we’ve been preparing ourselves for it since before we qualified for the finals. Our national team playing means unity, barbecues and lots of fun!
How do you think your national team will fare in Brazil?
VB:Australia will have a very hard task in this year’s World Cup due to the very talented teams in Group B (Chile, Netherlands and Spain). We will be very lucky to come away with a draw in any of the group matches.
FJ:Although said to be one of the toughest groups, I believe we will qualify for the second round. But from there onwards it will be a challenge because the odds tell us that most likely we will face Brazil – a perennial favourite.
