What I found so far

Here in Bangkok, on the first day of the Asia Fruit Logistica International Trade Fair, I have found the event to be quite well run. Albeit with just 120 exhibitors from 24 countries, some I talked to were very positive about the show, with one saying it could eventually be the third part of a global expo triad that now includes PMA in the U.S. and Fruit Logistica in Germany. That may be overreaching for now, but the show, like Asia, has big potential.

The crowds were fairly active all afternoon. Though I didn't observe a lot of retail presence in the expo hall, the exception was a good contingent of buyers and retailers from India. There was more than one Chinese apple exporter represented in the expo hall. It was interesting to hear informal, off the record conversation that indicates China's is tying action on market access for certain U.S. fruits to U.S. action on Chinese apples.

While the market intelligence provided by the educational sessions was strong, much of it was skewed toward the Japanese market. Even in Japan, however, the notion of food miles and organic agriculture don't resonate like they do in the West. For Japan, "local" produce is local enough if it was grown somewhere in Japan. And Japanese consumers, know to pay legendary prices for melons and other fruit, are still expecting top quality but aren't willing to pay the prices they used to pay. So much so, says one South African marketer, that the market may lose out on the top fruit to other countries.

The U.S. presence included the California Table Grape Commisison, the Calfornia Tree Fruit Agreement and the Pear Bureau Northwest, among a few others.

It was good to see Lisa McNeece of Grimmway Farms, Sheri Mierau of the California Tree Fruit Agreement, Vince Balakian of Fruit Patch Sales LLC and others.

I asked Vince what happened to the tree fruit deal in California this year. While the year was set up to be good based on the supply, the competitive outlook and the marketing job done by the CTFA, the inability to program enough ads during the peak of the season put the industry in the position of facing down mounting inventories. Sell 125,000 cartons but put 150,000 cartons in the cooler. Growers sometimes have expressed disdain for ads that seem to voluntarily weaken the market, but Vince made the argument that not enough ads were set up this year.