September was a particularly busy month here at the FPC and saw us out and about, engaging the country’s decision-makers on your behalf.

We joined forces with the Crop Protection Association to lobby Gordon Brown over the EU pesticides proposal. It is incumbent on us all to continue to actively lobby MPs and MEPs to ensure this potentially catastrophic proposal does not become law.

We were delighted to meet Rodrick McSherry, agricultural counsellor of the US Embassy, to discuss industry topics of mutual interest, and we very much look forward to working with Rodrick and his team in the future. Keeping the embassy theme, we were equally delighted to visit Alberto Hart, head of trade, investment and co-operation at the Embassy of Peru. It is my passionate view that valuing and developing relationships with our global counterparts is crucial to the success of world food issues.

Our work with Business Link on the development of the International Trade Single Window is ongoing. Together we aim to improve and update importation information and the way you do things. Your co-operation and input is crucial to moving some of these systems into the 21st century.

Plans for our 63rd annual dinner are progressing nicely and we are delighted to announce our guest of honour will be the Honourable Uhur Kenyatta, deputy prime minister and minister for trade in the Republic of Kenya, together with the High Commissioner His Excellency Joseph Muchemi. We are excited that this fabulous evening is proving to be so popular with the industry and tickets are selling fast, so book now to avoid disappointment at www.freshproduce.org.uk

We greatly enjoyed our visit to the Port of Tilbury with a large group of members and our thanks to Mike Gibson and his team at Tilbury Container Services (TCS) for their kind hospitality and an extremely well-organised day. Development of rail links and tugs to move produce by rail and water was of particular interest and we look forward to working with you and TCS on these initiatives.

In conjunction with FlyingMatters, we debated the ongoing air miles issues at fringe meetings at both the Labour and Conservative Party Conferences, raising awareness of our industry’s concerns and pressing home the facts, rather than the myths.