Health professionals have for many years referred to the French Paradox, which allows men and women in that country to eat large quantities of animal fats without suffering from the very high rates of coronary heart disease that affect the rest of us.
It's a fair bet that we'll soon be talking about the Norwegian Exception. Before you Robert Ludlum fans get too excited, this isn’t the title of a missing novel from the typewriter that brought us The Bourne Ultimatum, The Aquitaine Procession and The Icarus Agenda. It refers to even more thrilling news now reaching us from Oslo.
For two days in September, Norway's capital city hosted several hundred suppliers from all over the world to mark the 125th anniversary of its number one fresh produce company, Bama. It could have been an occasion for much celebratory backslapping and self-important speechmaking, but the clever people at Bama encouraged us instead to think.
No less a brain than US economics professor and UN special advisor Jeffrey Sachs had flown into town to warn of the twin threats of climate change and population growth. Later, Norway's trade and agriculture ministers talked confidently of the opportunities for local businesses at home and abroad.
Things were put into sharper context by Bama's Rune Flaen and øyvind Briså. Among other things, they pointed to the company's huge growth since the early 1990s: current annual sales of almost €1bn would be impressive for any company, but they strike me as especially remarkable for one that operates in a market of less than 5m people.
Of course, Bama is fortunate, not least in its command of a sizeable share of a market where GDP per head is close to US$60,000, among the highest anywhere in the world. There are other less obvious factors too and these have some important lessons for the rest of us. Look at the statistics and you’ll see that Norway is becoming an exception in Europe, for Norwegians have been eating more fresh fruit and vegetables, delivering year-on-year increases in demand. So it is that schoolchildren, their parents and grandparents now consume more fruit and vegetables than they used to.
Bama and its food retail partners in Rema 1000 and the Norges Gruppen group have done this by investing significant sums of money in the promotion of fresh produce, co-opting sporting heroes and other role models to a diet rich in fresh fruit and vegetables. Bama says it has also been hard at work in the foodservice sector.
This transformation of the fresh fruit and vegetable market has helped local and international suppliers alike. Norway has become a major market for leading companies from all over the world – indeed, it's now the number two market in Europe for no less a business than Dole.
Dole's president and owner, David Murdock, arrived in person to take part in the celebrations. He gives voice to the life-enhancing qualities of a diet rich in fresh produce, spending almost US$1bn of his money to set up a foundation back in the US to promote healthy eating.
It seems Norway has become something of an exception in Europe. Now its achievements ought really to become the rule.
Chris White will be reporting on Bama’s future plans for growth in the next issue of Eurofruit.
