With the first month of 2009 promptly under our belts, I trust you are recovering from the recent deep freeze and are all looking forward to some sign that spring is on its way.

The start of the Six Nations Rugby Championship is always a good signal and makes the winter weekends a little more bearable. That said, watching England’s appalling start was a cause for concern and I was reminded of Will Greenwood’s opening of our last Re:fresh Conference and the inspirational presentation which, in summary, informed us that England’s success in the 2004 World Cup was due to leadership, commitment and discipline. We did not see much of any of these on Saturday and something radical is needed this weekend.

On the subject of Re:fresh, we are currently working hard with FPJ to ensure this year’s conference line-up will provide informative debate and interesting discussion. Don’t forget, we have a BOGOF offer on conference tickets this year. In this depressing economic climate, why not take a positive step and enter the Re:fresh Awards? It is a great morale booster to get through to the finals. You can enter more than one category, so get your entry in before April 9.

We enjoyed the company of our Commonwealth cousins immensely at the Intercontinental on Saturday, January 31, at the FPC Annual Dinner. It was a joy to host Kenya as the guest nation and we were honoured that Dr Cyrus Njiru, permanent secretary of the ministry for trade, had flown in from Nairobi especially to attend the event. It was also lovely to see HE Joseph Muchemi, High Commissioner and his lady, and members of the Kenyan Horticultural Crops Development Authority. Among the fun, it was good to focus on our trading relationship with Kenya, as highlighted by both our president Jim Rogers and Dr Njiru. We will continue to work with our Kenyan members to ensure that the truth about food miles is broadcast in the media and that we challenge misinformation at every juncture. It was great to catch up with so many of you on the evening and we at the FPC thank you for your support of this event.