Our special feature on Scandinavia (Eurofruit Magazine, August issue) provides me with the perfect excuse to say a fond farvel to one of our closest friends in the fresh produce trade, Coop Trading’s head of business development Svend Aage Kristensen.
After what will be almost 48 years in the trade, the great Dane has decided it is at last time to hang up his calculator and leave the tough business of sourcing fruit and vegetables for the Nordic consumer cooperatives to someone with significantly fewer air miles. By the end of August, he will have traded in the early, pre-work swims and banana pricing charts for a glass of fine wine out in the garden and the chance to spend more time with his family. 'It’s a gift I need to use,' he tells us.
I hope Svend won’t mind me saying that he did not conform to the stereotype of a modern European retail buyer. Although he was, by all accounts, a formidable negotiator, there was nothing hard-nosed about his way of working; travelling far and wide to visit plantations, growers, suppliers and exporters, Svend showed a very real affinity for the entire fruit and vegetable business and was fully aware of the need to develop equitable partnerships that traded in good quality products, instead of embarking on the kind of race to the bottom seen in other markets.
A few years ago, he told this magazine: 'The competition is very tough, and as retailers we are always pressed when it comes to the bottom line. We need to look carefully for added value through innovation and new products if we are to avoid all ending up as discounters.' A firm advocate of fairness when it came to paying growers, Svend leaves behind an industry that has come a long way in terms of its ethical treatment of workers, not to mention one that continues to innovate and develop new products which offer the chance to generate additional value for growers, traders and consumers.
