September 12, 1024
To address individual grower needs the company offers customized, integrated crop solutions based on high-quality vegetable seeds, effective chemical and biological crop protection, complementary services and advice in environmental protection, efficiency and safety. This ap-proach was recently presented at Asia Fruit Logistica in Hong Kong from September 3-5. The fair offered the opportunity for many direct and intense exchanges with various customer groups across the food value chain, with an obvious focus on Asian expectations and opportunities. Asia Fruit Logistica was a much bigger event this year, attracting 24% more visitors than the previous year. The visitors came from a total of 64 countries. 2014 also saw 28% more exhibitors from a record 38 countries.
The Food Chain Partnership business model was showcased featuring the Australian collaboration with Fresh Select. The commitment to sustainable farming shared by Fresh Select and Bayer led to an approach focusing on sustainability initiatives, e.g. developing a truly sustainable pest management solution. Bayer brought together various stakeholders to develop and deliver innovative and effective approaches. The Bayer Sustainability Radar (BSR), a project manage-ment tool developed by Bayer CropScience, was implemented to assess and measure the sustainability performance of farming practices and providing a tailor-made action plan drawn up on the basis of the BSR analysis. The progress achieved could be measured and communicated in a very clear and understandable way. For more details of this Food Chain Partnership with Fresh Select click here.
The emphasis in discussions at the booth was that by looking at various aspects of sustainable production the BSR is a good tool to identify improvement needs and opportunities, thus addressing demands of trade and retailers. It was also very clear in discussions with different representatives of the horticulture industry during the three busy days of the fair that there are many oppor-tunities for further rolling out Food Chain Partnerships in the Asia-Pacific Region, and that there is a great deal of interest and trust in this approach.
Further two partnerships in the area of vegetable seeds were highlighted. In the case of LaManna the value proposition for the Asian market of Intense™ tomatoes made a very clear positive impact on visitors. These tomatoes display the unique property of not leaking juice, which makes them particularly suitable for applications like sandwiches and cooking. Agrolibano, a leading producer and longstanding partner of Bayer Crop Science Vegetable Seeds, exhibited their melons along with new developments in this category. During the whole fair a chef prepared delicious recipes using produce from these business partners.
As Rolf Schrauwen, Global Head of Marketing for Vegetable Seeds, commented, “Asia Fruit Logistica offered an excellent platform for showing our solutions and innovations to the world, both in terms of genetics in Vegetable Seeds as well as for food safety and quality management as presented by the Food Chain Management. This will benefit all our partners throughout the value chain, from farmers and traders to processors and retailers, and thus open up opportunities for all the players involved.”
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