Fruit Logistica: price war without winners

This year’s Fruit Logistica trade fair was held in Berlin, in the middle of February. German retail prices are going down, especially in the discount channel. There is a price war going on, despite that hardly anybody comes out as a winner. According to Michael T. Hofer, the fair’s press director the war is about market share. In his opinion, sooner or later even consumers will understand that some day they will have to pay dearly for cheap products, as quality and safety cannot be bought at dumping prices. At the opening ceremony Thomas Bittel, the vice-president of the German Fruit Trade Association said that fruit-vegetable production in Germany was jeopardised by the price war. He also told that international competition for fresh fruit and vegetable might become fierce in the years to come. As for the trade fair itself: 72 countries were represented by 2,302 exhibitors and 53,000 visitors were registered from 130 countries. Hungary was present on 250 m² with 17 companies at the collective stand of the Agricultural Marketing Centre. Márta Némethy, the fair’s representative in Hungary told our magazine that the crisis made Hungarian companies concentrate more on foreign markets.