The meeting brought together more than 70 representatives of different nut and dried fruit organizations and companies such as the Aegean Exporters Associations (Turkey), Almendrave (Spain), Blacksea Exporters Associations (TK), California Walnut Commission (USA), Eurofins, FRUCOM (Belgium), Fruitimprese (Italy), Frutos Secos Fuster (Spain/Portugal), German Embassy in Turkey, Ireco Trading & Production (Luxemburg), Istanbul Exporters’ Associations (TK), Midsummer Marketing (UK), National Dried Fruit Trade Association (NDFTA) (UK), NZV (Netherlands), OLAM (Netherlands), PALM Nuts & More GmbH & Co. KG (Germany), Safe Food Alliance (USA), Schlüter & Maack Handelsges mbH (Germany), Syndicat National des Fruits Secs (SNFS) (France), The Nut Association (TNA) (UK), US Mission, Waren-Verein der Hamburger Börse e.V. (Germany), and Wonderful Pistachios & Almonds (USA).
This year, the Meeting focused on Digitalization of Trade. In addition, the agenda included topics such as FRUCOM activities, the EU-Turkey trade relations, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between EU and Canada, and the modernization of the Chile-EU Association Agreement.
FRUCOM reported about topical issues for the dried fruit and nut industry at European level such as safety import controls, OTA, aflatoxins, pesticides, additives and Brexit. The Waren-Verein talked about the digitalization of trade and how new technologies are opening new opportunities. The Aegean Exporters’ Association informed about how Turkey is implementing digitalization in the production system and trade. The second part of the Meeting revolved around food, trade and politics. Dr. Peter Bolen, Embassy of Germany in Turkey, gave an overview of the fruit and nut markets in Turkey. New opportunities generated by the CETA between EU and Canada were explained by Mr. Christopher MacLean, Embassy of Canada in Berlin. Here after, Mr. Diego Torres, Embassy of Chile in Berlin, gave a presentation about the modernization of the EU-Chile Association Agreement.
After the lunch break, the topic of digital trade was introduced by keynote speaker Mr. Jean-Jacques Vandenheede, former Head of Research in the Retail Sector at Nielsen Europe. After the speech, the issue of digital trade was discussed by a specialized panel composed of Dr. Hansjoerg Rodi, Managing Director Germany & President Central and Eastern Europe Region of Duehne + Nagel (AG & Co.) KG, Mr. Christian Sega, Managing Director of Agiles Informationssysteme, and Mr. Jean-Jacques Vandenheede. The panel discussion was moderated by Ms. Julia Sen, NDR Fernsehen.