“We are very pleased to be here to support the show in its 75th year,” said Spitalfields Market Tenants’ Association chief executive Jim Heppel, a veteran of more than 30 National Fruit Shows who remembers “the good old days” at Marden.
“Wholesalers were king in those days, coming down from all over the country,” he said. “The likes of George Noble from Hull and Collingbrook’s from Birmingham were here every year - they used the show as the time to see the growers and settle up for the previous year, and then went and bought up the orchards for the season to come. Supplies were limited at that time, of course, and wholesalers had to go to where the fruit was grown to secure their share.
“Times may have changed, but we show that the wholesalers are still here providing a top-class service to English growers. They get paid promptly by us - within 21 days - and they get a better return.”
Alan Todd, ex-Marden Fruit Show Society chairman, added: “Growers used to go up to the markets two or three times a year to see where their fruit was being sold and to talk to the salesmen and their customers. That doesn’t happen any more and that’s sad. There was a wonderful rapport with the salesmen then and if growers hadn’t gone to the markets, they would have been in the dark.”
