In this week’s bumper issue, you’ll read a whole host of positive articles about this industry of ours, branching across a wide range of sectors.

And they are not all stories you might have expected to read even a couple of years ago.

To pick just three, we have a UK wholesale market with the fantastic opportunity offered by a brand new 21st century site, a Scottish berry breeder with the chance to expand its horizons into the continent, and the extremly unlikely sighting of a breed of apple that is not so much rare, as rarely English, on the supermarket shelves.

Not bad for starters, but there is much more besides - from home and abroad - to put a smile on the trade’s face as the clocks go back and we bed in for a long and, undoubtedly, challenging winter.

It’s tough at times, but as an industry we should take pride in the level of dedication and expertise that has been put into merely surviving these competitive times. There is a huge amount of incredible innovation happening before our eyes - but not much time to step outside of the box and recognise it for what it represents.

To delight in other people’s achievements is not exactly ingrained in human nature, but it is only by doing that and trying our hardest to top them that we move forward.

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