Friends and colleagues of Doug Henderson, recently retired chief executive of the Fresh Produce Consortium (FPC), gathered to pay tribute to the man who headed up the UK trade association in its formative years.
David Matthews, one of four presidents past and present who attended the dinner at Simpsons on the Strand in London, told fellow guests that Henderson’s legacy is a firm and long-lasting working relationship with the UK government. “Doug has raised the esteem of fresh produce UK not only in the UK, but in Europe and the rest of the world,” Matthews said.
Henderson himself said that nothing done by the FPC in its 12 years has been “an achievement”, explaining, “it is what the FPC does and what the industry rightly expects the FPC to do.
“The FPC did not change the industry on its own, but we did do four things,” he said. “Firstly we recognised the role we had to play and played it to the full. Second, we took the various industry initiatives, packaged them up and transformed them into a sales proposition. Thirdly, we plugged the remaining gaps in this proposition, particularly working on pesticides and towards the implementation of the current review programme and pushing the gang labour motion through the House of Commons. And finally, we took the sales proposition to the government - and they bought it.”
He said the FPC will continue to work alongside government to achieve joint aims to increase fruit and vegetable consumption in the UK and improve the health of the nation in line with government objectives.
Matthews said that Henderson had written so many guideline and policy documents and directives in the past decade that “only JK Rowling and Jeffrey Archer have been more prolific”. He also commended the tireless work on campaigns such as Colours of Life and Get Fresh, which did not get off the ground but “paved the way for the National Schools Fruit & Vegetable Scheme”.
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