Over the last week I’ve seen a few unofficial trade records broken.

The first record must surely go to the Marden Fruit Show Society when it took its award-winning apple and pear displays from the National Show up to Chatsworth House in Derbyshire.

To see the crowds of weekend visitors almost fighting to buy fruit is just the sort of tonic that the industry needs.

There were one or two people looking for strawberries and plums, but this has to be compensated for by an enquiry asking if apple marketer Norman Collett’s apple and pear characters, Polly the Perfect Pear and Adam the Athletic Apple, could visit a local school to spearhead a class project on top fruit.

And apart from any sales figures, I picked up more news on the Tesco display unit parked at the gate which must compensate for the criticisms over promoting Granny Smith, expressed in last week’s FPJ.

The UK’s number one retailer is set to give several English varieties greater prominence by marketing them under a sub-brand of “British Apple” within its Finest traypack range.

Not only will it feature the tried and tested Cox, already on the shelves with Laxton Fortune, but is seen as a way to keep interest going in some of older favourites. I’m told that Ashmead’s Kernel and Blenheim have passed the retailer’s taste tests.

And also, in the months ahead we can expect to see Jazz and Tentation, which may be joined by Braeburn and Egremont Russett.

As for the other record, I can’t remember how many trade conferences I’ve covered over the years, but it was the first time I’ve ever seen a message sent from a country’s president wishing an organisation well.

The case in point was at EurepGAP - shorthand for Good Agricultural Practices - held over three days in Disneyland, Paris, although to the credit of the speakers there were very few jokes about Mickey Mouse and his friends.

For those readers who may not be familiar with Vicente Fox Quesada, he is the president of Mexico, a country which has taken the benchmarking process to its heart, creating MexicoGAP.

With both Chinese and Japanese delegations providing evidence they are on the same route, the event fielded over 470 delegates from 46 countries, and if that was not enough there were 75 presentations.

That’s impressive when one considers the catalyst for the 10- year-old organisation was the supermarkets wanting a rationalised approach to food safety standards.

And the subject hasn’t gone away. Next spring a meeting of the Global Food Safety Initiative, comprising no less than 42 supermarkets from across the world, will be reviewing the situation.

I’m glad to hear that EurepGAP is participating, particularly with its message of avoiding duplication and keeping costs to growers at a minimum.