It began with Jan Vorstermans of Zon Freshpark Venlo asking: ‘Is supply chain innovation a prerequisite to making fresh business sustainable’. This was followed by Dr Marianne Groot of Wageningen University explaining: ‘EUBerry’ – a EU funded research into marketing strategies for new berries validated for improved health benefits.
Dr Stephan Pecoroni of GEA Group then gave a useful presentation on Innovation in juice processing – you can read an article about this in the July issue of Beverage Innovation.
I then gave a comprehensive visual round-up on behalf of FoodBev Media and Beverage Innovation magazine of innovative new products in the superfruits sector, ranging from smoothies and blended juices to vitamin waters and functional teas in every part of the world – from the UK and US to Japan and Australia – highlighting new trends including coconut blends and even chocolate.
Ewa Hudson of Euromonitor then gave an overview of ‘Natural antioxidants’ and global trends highlighting strategic direction for launches and innovation drivers.
Sam Waterfall spoke on the four success factors required for marketing vaccinium berries (blueberries) and other superfruits. The morning ended with Alexandra Vasilyuk of Russia speaking on the pomegranate juice market there from the viewpoint of her company, Grante.
The afternoon included Helmut Dietrich of Germany speaking on the complex ageing behaviour of berry fruit juices and how this can be extended and the day ended with a hot topic panel debating whether all fruit is super.
And what was new for me? Well apparently two newly developed and discovered fruits – the baby kiwi (non-hairy so you can pop it straight in your mouth) and the black raspberry are the fruits to look out for in the coming year.
Have a healthy weekend.
See the Vaccinium 2012 gallery here.
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