For many of us, growing up, studying andsettling in the same town or even country is very mucha lifestyle of the past. Thanks to fantastic travelconnections and sophisticated communication systems,the world has become a much smaller, accessible placein which to live. As for the fresh produce business,globalization has not only influenced demand butfacilitated the movement of trade between nations.
North America in particular has a long tradition ofethnic diversity. Migrants throughout the US and Canadacontinue to demand a diverse range of fruits andvegetables procured from around the world. As a result,many products have lost their seasonality while someniche items have filtered into the mainstream. And, allof this, of course, has been possible with improvedtransport links and wider market access.
Today, we might breakfast on an Ecuadorean banana,lunch on salad items trucked from Mexico, snack onkiwifruit grown in Italy and enjoy a desert of exoticfruits sourced from across Asia. Globalization andimmigration have allowed for exceptional variety in thefresh produce department, and it is getting widerstill. As our cover story illustrates, in May the USgranted access to Chilean oranges and grapefruit (p12of this month's Americafruit Magazine) and furtherdeals with other nations remain in the pipeline.
However, after a spate of food safety scares and theemergence of the food miles debate, consumers areincreasingly concerned about the provenance of theirfood, especially imports. As a result, many are turningto locally-grown items, which they consider to be saferand healthier. In 2007 alone, local or regional salesby farmers to household consumers in the US rose 49 percent to US$1.2bn, according to a USDA census. Althoughthe locavore sector only represented a fraction of theoverall US$300bn in farm sales in the US, the growth inits popularity is nonetheless one to bear in mind.
The application of a thorough and trustworthy foodsafety system in the US is now more vital than ever torebuild consumer confidence and ensure the door remainsopen to fruits and vegetables from across the world.And with US Congress poised to pass a comprehensivereform of food safety laws in the US (p5&9 of thismonth's Americafruit Magazine), it appears we mayfinally be on the right track.
Let’s not pretend it’s going to be easy forour industry, but modernizing the system will pave theway for restored and even greater public trust inproduce. So, long may we enjoy an extensive variety ofglobally-sourced fresh fruits and vegetables throughoutthe year.
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