Pumpkins, bob-apple, dark evenings and chilly mornings all serve as a reminder that winter is just around the corner, but the sudden snow flurry last weekend came as a bit of a shock to the system. They say when you’re older time seems to move more quickly, but I seem to have missed the summer altogether and here we are discussing what we’re doing for Christmas and planning for the new year!

Each chilly second takes us another step closer to our annual dinner with guest nation the Dominican Republic and guest of honour ambassador Federico Cuello Camilo. There is an air of excitement and anticipation about this event wherever we go: Savoy general manager Kieran McDonald joined a recent FPC-Savoy operational meeting and the team are on board, cocktails designed by head bartender of the American Bar, fine dining gastronomy from Bernard Meyer and his team, Covent Garden florist Sophie Hannah is planning to create a tropical ‘wow’ factor for us and tickets are selling faster than ever.

We will be bringing the sunshine and carnival atmosphere of Santo Domingo to London on a wintry Saturday night in the opulent surroundings of the Lancaster Ballroom – a perfect way of dealing with those January blues, trust me! Book your tickets early to save disappointment – we need to cap the numbers and envisage there could be a waiting list, so don’t leave it to the last minute. Get your salsa shoes on and call Angie at the office or book online at www.freshproduce.org.uk.

After a summer of searching, we have found a great design partner to give our website and marketing image a complete makeover. We need to get it right so it will take some time to implement, but we’ll keep you updated as we go and expect to see a launch in early spring of next year. We are really excited and hope you will be too – it’s a major project and will revolutionise the way we interact with the industry and how we provide information and advice.

It was good to see so many technical members at Eurofins recently for the FPC Technical Group meeting. It was a really worthwhile discussion over serious issues of the day and a great networking opportunity. We were delighted to catch up over lunch with our good friends and members Food Experts, who travelled over from Madrid to attend the forum.

It was great too to see the HR group packing out our meeting room a week later, with FPC member Freeth Cartwright on the agenda providing relevant employment law updates to a fabulous chatty bunch of HR managers.

It’s the people that make this job worthwhile, and as we head to the end of the last quarter we are delighted to have a higher membership than ever before in the history of the FPC, with greater interaction than ever across the sector. We share a passion for the industry and we’re busy planning new exciting projects and initiatives, so watch this space. —