The soft-fruit industry converges on Kent next week having enjoyed more than its fair share of publicity in recent months.
Of course, some suppliers have to hold onto whatever truth there is in the adage that there is no such thing as bad publicity. But if sales are any indication of how much notice the consumers take of inflammatory articles in the national press, then the answer lies somewhere between none and very little.
On page 18, we feature British Summer Fruits and Winter Berries, the PR campaigns that have catapulted berries off the food pages and into the mainstream of the UK’s consumer media. It surely cannot be a coincidence that sales have rocketed across the category.
The decision to extend the successful work on UK-grown fruit to perform a similar image-building role throughout the winter looks inspired after just one year. If the fresh produce industry needed an eye-opener and a hint of the direction it should perhaps be moving in en masse, this was it.
Of course that will not go down well with the berry fraternity, who will guard their new-found shelf-space with their lives - quite rightly. But it has certainly offered some food for thought for Eat in Colour.
The FPJ team looks forward to seeing you at Fruit Focus. We’ll be on Stand 14.
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