Source: BLE
International Meeting on Quality Control of Fruit and Vegetables: focusing on climate change and online trade
Around two hundred participants from twenty-three countries accepted the invitation of the BLE and the Working Group on Official Quality Control to the "34th International Meeting on Quality Control of Fruit and Vegetables (IAT)" in Bonn, this year. Major topical issues were the challenges of climate change for the fruit and vegetable sector and online trade with fresh fruit and vegetables. As a partner of the IAT, the OECD also provided the audience of experts with broad insights into its work programme.
"It becomes increasingly clear that the challenges addressed at this conference require much more intensive international cooperation," emphasised Dr Hanns-Christoph Eiden, President of the Federal Agency of Agriculture and Food (BLE), in his opening speech. "A conference like the IAT, with experts from Germany and Europe, from Africa, North and South America, and from Asia presents an excellent opportunity for this important international exchange."
The climate crisis as a challenge
Wiebke Nieberg and Markus Hackenberg, both of the BLE, and Dr Karsten Klopp of the Lower Saxony Chamber of Agriculture, outlined the impact of climate change on the fruit and vegetable sector worldwide, and in Germany. Klopp stressed that northern German fruit and vegetable producers today already faced climate conditions predicted only for the year 2050. This was illustrated by the measured annual average temperature in connection with fruit tree phenology. Climate change was happening much faster than predicted, leading to ever-increasing challenges such as too little water for the extra days of frost sprinkling, increased pest pressure due to new pests, and pests with additional annual generations. Cyril Julius (Perishable Products Export Control Board) reported on the results of an OECD-funded study on the impacts of climate change on the quality of citrus fruits, plums, apples, and potatoes in South Africa. The study found both negative and positive effects on phenology, fruit ripening, and quality.
Quality control of online fruit and vegetable trade
Elin Keblanz of the Swedish Board of Agriculture and Malika El Krayass of the French Ministry of the Economy reported on their experiences from controlling online trade in fresh fruit and vegetables. The report was complemented by the findings of the OECD, presented by Marie Russel. Despite improvements in recent years, online marketing continued to present a challenge for inspection: Information on websites often does not comply with the required legal standards and is flawed and incomplete. Moreover, online traders often lack information regarding the marketing standards and legal bases to be complied with. In the view of the experts, the fast pace of online marketing and the fact that the trading platforms are located outside the country of control represented a particular impediment to inspection. The situation could be improved through regular checks, complaints, and individual advice to marketers.
Asparagus and berry fruits – a look into the future
Joachim Ziegler of the Rhine-Palatinate Service Centre and Ton Smolders of Limgroup B.V. discussed modern cultivation, harvesting, and sorting systems used in asparagus production. The trend, also in view of cost pressures, was towards large-scale mechanisation in that labour-intensive crop - the first harvesting robots might be up and running in three to five years. Dr Felix Koschnik, of the Lower Saxony Chamber of Agriculture, gave a talk on domestic blueberry production, which faces fierce competition and cost pressure from other supplier countries. Koschnik pointed out that since 2019, about 80 per cent of blueberry fruits were being imported in order to meet demand. He would like to see more of the trade and consumers opting for domestic produce. Youssof Moucharraf from Morocco Foodex showed how berry producers in Morocco work. The thematic block was rounded off by presentations by Maria do Carmo Bassols Raseira and Andre Bispo Oliveira from Brazil, who presented the diversity of fruits from South America. Some of these, such as camu-camu or umbu, may well have potential for the German market.
Sample assessments for asparagus and berry fruits
A sample presentation gave participants the opportunity to evaluate different asparagus and soft fruit samples according to the respective UNECE marketing standards. With these practical modules, the IAT aims to approach a uniform interpretation of the marketing standards on an inter-national level. This harmonisation represents an essential part of the event.
The published presentations are available at www.ble.de/iat-en.
