With the international food trade again beating a path to the doors of SIAL, it now seems extraordinary in UK terms that the current French produce cornucopia was virtually unrecognised and in some cases not even in existence in the mid 60s.

At that time France was the hunting ground for luxury items, such as asparagus grown along the sandy Mediterranean coast, and the source of products like Laval grapes, which usually finished up in presentation baskets in London hotels or as a gift at a hospital bedside.

Everything, however, was beginning to change and I can claim with some certainty to have been one of the first journalists in the country to be invited by Sopexa to take a trip around Provence and Languedoc Roussillon to report progress on hundreds of hectares of new orchards.

The surge was led by French growers known as the Pied-Noir, who had decamped from Algeria resulting in massive export industries.

These were focused initially on apples, which also spread north to the Loire Valley and Aquitaine, but in the south soon included peaches, nectarines and apricots.

Golden Delicious, with their high yields and percentage of Class I fruit, were the first choice, although across the Channel what initially proved to be a culture shock for grower-exporters was that the British wanted fruit which featured a greenish tinge rather than full-maturity yellow.

This demand was underscored by the immediate demand for Granny Smith, which were also making headway in the Loire Valley, long before the appearance of the many strains of Gala and Braeburn.

Red Delicious was also available, as well as some national French varieties, while there was even a case of one grower in the Pas-de-Calais growing Cox.

The other differing aspect was the UK prevalence of commission sales rather than buying on a fixed price, which was common practice across the continent.

The one element that had French approval was that the British wanted medium 65-70mm, a size below the fruit sent to Germany. Additionally, in the early days, the logistics proved to be far easier than expected. Several importers hit on the bright idea of contracting the empty refrigerated Irish meat lorries returning through France from Italy.

With France exporting something in the region of 150,000 tonnes of apples a year across the Channel, it was not surprising that the English industry felt the pressure.

It resulted in a period where the headlines in the national media flashed up warnings of the ‘Apple War’, which thanks to pressure from the National Farmers’ Union even resulted in a Parliamentary probe to consider the facts. I was actually asked to give an opinion to a committee of MPs, though it did not stop what the national media was calling an invasion.

Sopexa arranged several marketing conferences working with the Fruit Importers’ Association and French delegations became regular visitors to the UK, resulting in many brands such as Blue Whale and Pomanjou becoming well known.

With many French producers sheltered under the umbrella of co-operative marketing groups developed with the help of EU funding, it was not surprising that other fruit exports were attracted to the UK.

While Israel had earlier laid the foundations for boosting UK melon consumption with the emergence of its Galia variety, the French responded with Charentais.

There were even packhouses in Provence which had installed systems as part of the grading process, which pierced each fruit to record and guarantee Brix readings. Pears such as Williams became part of the fruit calendar for buyers, while in Aquitaine a major kiwifruit industry was starting to develop.

Nothing succeeds like success, and while initially Sopexa was only represented in London by a single person, the increasing importance of French produce exports led to a substantially staffed office representing all national food and wine interests.

The organisation was to create some of the most successful promotions that the trade had ever experienced, exemplified by Le Crunch and not forgetting the later similar bridge built by the stonefruit industry’s Summer Fruits campaign.

Vegetables were also becoming a major export industry, spearheaded by Brittany Prince, whose regional generic label was among the first to really identity the source.

It seems extraordinary now that when the first then grower-owned Brittany Ferry, the Penn Ar Bed, docked on its maiden voyage from to Plymouth, it was part of the regional development plan to expand the exports of cauliflower, globe artichokes and new potatoes. The return voyages carrying tourists and their cars were only seen as of secondary importance.

Other areas of France were also building a niche market for onions grown in the Carmargue. Limited early carrot production in Normandy had always had a UK following, but buyers also turned to the area below Bordeaux, where the scale of production rivalled East Anglia.

Salads traditionally grown in the Nantes area for Paris included lamb’s lettuce, although UK interest was initially so slow that a French delegation to the UK offered retailers free trials just to get the crop known.

France also began to show signs of joining the Netherlands and the Channel Islands as a tomato supplier, providing many of the national varieties such as Marmande and Coeur de Boeuf that are still being sold today.

There were also lesser-known marketing forays to test the potential for sub-tropical crops including citrus, which despite the competition from Spain, introduced the British public to Corsican clementines.

Even more unusually, at a time when it appeared that through EU legislation the British Caribbean banana industry was likely to loose its protection, my travels – again with acknowledgement to Sopexa – took me to Martinique and Guadeloupe.

This maritime part of France did not just have plantations, I was told, but growers were also delighted to suggest avocados and pineapples!