The healthy properties of fruit will form the theme for this years National Fruit Show, the organiser has announced.
Robert Mitchell, chairman of organiser the Marden Fruit Show Society, said the theme will be “Fruit for Health” at the society’s annual general meeting.
Mitchell said: “The job of our society and the National Fruit Show in particular is to reflect the mood of optimism in the industry.
“There has been a lot of replanting, new stores and new investment generally in areas such as staff training and new equipment on fruit farms.”
The show, which last year saw an upturn in financial returns for the first time in six years, will take place on October 19 and 20 at the Kent County Showground at Detling.
Following on from previous years’ success with Kew and Ampleforth College in Yorkshire, the show’s exhibition fruit will go to Chatsworth House in Derbyshire the weekend after the show finishes.
“I am delighted that again we are going to another major public venue for our home-grown fruit,” said Mitchell
Baroness Brenda Dean, the new chairman of the Covent Garden Market Authority, attended the meeting in her first public engagement in the role and said she was pleased to see a society so active.
She said she understood supermarkets were important to growers, but said New Covent Garden had “enormous” catering opportunities and said there would be a lot of changes taking place in the future.
This year’s Bonanza sponsor for the show will be ICA ltd of Tonbridge, Kent, major suppliers of controlled atmosphere fruit and vegetable stores, packhouses and distribution centres.
This year’s Bonanza prize will be a five-day trip for two to Hungary, including visits to the country’s largest apple growing area, a tour of orchards, a fruit research institute and the largest CA store in Hungary, built by ICA.
