Carl Collen

London

News Editor at Americafruit

Deputy Editor at Eurofruit

Eurofruit deputy editor and online news editor at https://t.co/v5n2JLjwZf

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Articles

UK trade bodies call for government action amid cost crisis

1 week ago | fruitnet.com | Carl Collen

Leading UK trade bodies have called for government action to secure the future of the country’s horticulture and fresh produce sectors, as they face up to soaring costs. The Fresh Produce Consortium (FPC), Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) and British Potato Trade Association (BPTA) have formed a united front, urging top Cabinet Office, Treasury, and Defra ministers to engage on solutions to safeguard the UK’s horticulture and fresh produce industries.
CH Robinson hits AI landmark

1 week ago | fruitnet.com | Carl Collen

Image: Rafael Henrique – Adobe StockCH Robinson has announced it has performed over 3mn shipping tasks with its fleet of generative AI agents – proprietary tech tools the global logistics provider has built to automate steps across the lifecycle of a shipment and reduce customers’ speed-to-market from hours to seconds. “That’s 3mn manual tasks our people didn’t have to do,” said Arun Rajan, chief strategy and innovation officer. “We’re at well over 1mn price quotes delivered by AI.
Growers United expands its assortment

1 week ago | fruitnet.com | Carl Collen

Grower association SweetPoint has announced that it is to start cultivating Tatayoyo, Rijk Zwaan’s pepper variety. SweetPoint, which is part of Growers United, said the slightly larger snack peppers were being grown at its location in Honselersdijk, the Netherlands. Tatayoyo stood out for its bold flavour, intense sweetness, and rich aroma, it noted. ”This snack pepper offers a completely new taste experience and is a very welcome addition to the pepper category,” SweetPoint stated.
Netafim partners with Treetoscope

1 week ago | fruitnet.com | Carl Collen

Irrigation technology leader Netafim has announced a partnership with irrigation management platform Treetoscope. Treetoscope leverages direct plant sensing technology to transform irrigation practices for tree crops and orchard growers worldwide. According to Netafim – the precision agriculture business of Orbia – the collaboration provided farmers with broader access to digital farming solutions that delivered real-time, data-driven irrigation recommendations.
Shaffe writes to president Trump expressing tariff concerns

1 week ago | fruitnet.com | Carl Collen

The Southern Hemisphere Association of Fresh Fruit Exporters (Shaffe) has sent a letter to US president Donald Trump expressing “significant concern” about the implications of the recently-introduced reciprocal tariff policy. The letter, signed by Shaffe president Nathan Hancock, warned that the imposition of tariffs on fresh fruits imported into the US would cause major disruptions for global supply chains, negatively affect market stability, and raise consumer costs.
Reciprocal tariffs “should exclude vulnerable countries”

1 week ago | fruitnet.com | Carl Collen

The UN Trade and Development body (UNCTAD) has called for the most vulnerable countries to be protected from reciprocal tariffs as the global trade war ramps up. UNCTAD said that developing nations were already grappling with low growth and mounting uncertainty, and pointed out that their activities had a ”negligible effect” on trade deficits. As a result, these countries should be exempt from new tariff hikes, it said.
Dole France hits the road with cycling sponsorship

1 week ago | fruitnet.com | Carl Collen

Dole France has announced its sponsorship of AVCA, a premier continental cycling team based in Aix-en-Provence, South France. The group said that partnership reflected its commitment to promoting health, performance, and excellence – ”values that lie at the heart of both cycling and our brand”. AVCA will this season compete in key European races such as the Tour de Provence, the Coupe de France rounds, and the Tour de l’Avenir. Dole France said it was ”proud to be part of their journey”.
Fepex welcomes Spanish cherry agreement with China

1 week ago | fruitnet.com | Carl Collen

Fepex has applauded the signing of a new protocol opening the Chinese market to Spanish cherry exports. The agreement was signed during an official visit to China by the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. Spain’s minister of agriculture, fisheries and food Luis Planas, and China’s minister of the general administration of customs Sun Meijun, rubber-stamped the new cherry export protocol.
Record high for US strawberry exports

1 week ago | fruitnet.com | Carl Collen

Data from the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Economic Research Service has outlined the success of the country’s strawberry export business in 2024. In its Fruit and Tree Nuts Outlook, the report showed that fresh strawberry export volumes increased 20 per cent year-over-year to 351.5mn pounds – the highest on record. Those exports were valued at US$570.3mn, making strawberries the third most valuable fresh fruit export behind apples and grapes and ahead of oranges and cherries.
US orange forecast rises

1 week ago | fruitnet.com | Carl Collen

The US Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (USDA-NASS) has released its April forecast for US orange production. The US all orange forecast for the 2024/25 season is 2.46m tonnes, up 2 per cent from the previous forecast. However, this is down 8 per cent from the 2023-2024 revised utilisation.