Chris Hutchinson used the New Spitalfields annual dinner and dance, at the Park Lane Hilton in London last weekend, to call on the Fresh Produce Consortium (FPC) to create some momentum for the wholesale industry.
Chairman of the market’s tenants’ association, Hutchinson told diners including FPC president Michael Velasco that “the wholesale section of the FPC is something that we all belong to, but at best it is just ticking along. There needs to be a lot more activity and I hope we can see more, with the rest of the markets in the country coming along to join us”.
Hutchinson reiterated the desire of the East London market to become a composite site, incorporating meat and fish alongside the existing fruit, vegetables and flowers. Addressing his point to Stanley Ginsberg of the Corporation of London, which owns Billingsgate and Smithfield as well as New Spitalfields, he said: “Spitalfields is proven as an efficient food trading area, and I hope ongoing negotiations lead to us all coming together; it makes sense to have [these products] all trading from the same area.”
With the mayor of Waltham Forest also present, Hutchinson added a request for assurances that there would be minimal disruption to the market during building work for the 2012 London Olympics.
