Fruiterers joined together in St Mary Abchurch on 25 January to celebrate the Feast of the Conversion of St Paul, the day when a new Master of the company assumes responsibility for the year.

Steve Bodger, the outgoing incumbent, was handing over the reins to Sandys Dawes, a Kent fruit grower, in a ceremony that has been customary for centuries.

Preaching at the service was the most reverend Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, which afforded the occasion deep significance.

Liverymen watched as the new Master swore his oath and later, at the Innholders’ Hall, applauded as he took over the mantle as the Fruiterers’ leader.

MASTER’S COMMENT

By Sandys Dawes

IMPRESSIVE INDUSTRY SUPPORT FOR CITY FOOD LECTURE

Another year on and there is a new Master of the Fruiterers. Our previous Master, Steve Bodger, provided a colourful and informative commentary on the activities of the Fruiterers livery during the course of 2010. I shall try to do something similar over the next 12 months.

Recently I joined some 600 guests in the packed Guildhall for the City Food Lecture 2011. It seemed to be very much a gathering of the great and the good who came from the multiples, farm leaders, politicians, journalists, pressure groups and so on. The lecturewas rightly praised in the FPJ and was given by Paul Polman, chief executive of Unilever, who stated his company’s ambition to source 100 per cent of its products sustainably over the next decade.

The first City Food Lecture was put on in 2001 and was a more modest affair, but it has grown considerably in guest numbers and reputation over the years.As many of you will know it is organised by the seven food related liveries and the very success of the evening was a tribute to the role that liveries play within the City of London and beyond. Those concerned are the Bakers, Butchers, Cooks, Farmers, Fishmongers, Fruiterers and Poulters, and the chairman of the management committee is a past Master of the Fruiterers, Laurence Olins, who also played a large part in instigating the first lecture.

What was impressive was the fact that it was so well supported by the liverymen of the seven companies. In the Fruiterers case, there are still roughly 50 per cent of our liverymen who are actively involved in the fruit trade as wholesalers, importers, traders, researchers and consultants, and in my case as a fruit grower.

I was also pleased to be able to talk to a young horticultural student, one of 20 reading a food-related degree who had been sponsored to attend the lecture. This represented an ideal initiative to encourage young people into the food world and hopefully into fruit as well. Another personal bonus was provided by the opportunity to quiz members of the panel before the official proceedings commenced.

Talking of students, I will bore you with a bit of history. It is highly relevant that the lecture takes place at the Guildhall within the City of London, where the histories of the London liveries start.Fruit used to be landed at Fruiterers Passage just east of Southward Bridge and barely a mile from the Guildhall.Among the City of London records there is a reference to the Ordinance of the Fruiterers, which laid down rules detailing the way that fruit should be sold and measured so a levy could be imposed on all sales.

That referencedates to 1463 and it is likely that the Fruiterers actually go back to the 1300s. So there is still a lot of history and tradition within our livery but equally we play an important part in today’s City of London.