“The continued expansion and increasingly international make-up of Fruit Logistica have attracted even more suppliers from all over the world, in search of new markets in the larger EU,” said Stephan Schlick, marketing manager of the Cobana Fruchtring Group.
However, he said it remains to be seen whether this upward trend will actually result in more international contacts in the retail sector.
He believed that one important issue in this respect will be that of quality management.
“Traceability and the technical factors involved in the identification or coding will have an increasing influence on the communication between producers and the retail trade.
“All of our group’s efforts are concentrated on achieving further improvements to the direct and systematic procurement and marketing of produce, and on offering customers the best possible standards of service.”
Due to an increasingly demanding retail food sector it is no longer enough simply to be a supplier of products, he said, and this will be even truer in the future.
“A whole range of other functions must also be activated, on the one hand to shield customers from the expenditure involved in the primary stages and on the other to provide creative assistance for the best possible sales results.
“Only suppliers acting on a nationwide scale can customise, coordinate and apply solutions to meet the customer’s needs. This is one area where we believe that a greater potential exists for our group,” he added.
