The anticipation for FRUIT LOGISTICA 2018 was great and, as last year, the exhibition was convincing across the board. Especially with the winter temperatures in Germany, the variety of exotic & sun-ripened fruits lifted the spirits of all visitors and the fair quickly made them forget the winter temperatures. The number of exhibitors is breathtaking every time, you hardly manage to see everything – even if you are there every day of the fair. Despite everything you can always find fruits & vegetables that you didn’t know or that were already forgotten.

Also, this year there was a lot of interesting things to marvel at. Starting with the black garlic that is now on everyone’s lips, heart-shaped cucumbers & purple Brussels sprouts to innovative coconut chips from Thailand. The exhibitors have put a lot of effort into decorating their booths. For example, a small duplicate of the Eiffel Tower in Paris is decorated from top to bottom with fruit & vegetables.

As always, the fair was well attended and among the trade visitors there were also one or two end customers. This is of course a great thing for the exhibitors, because they don’t have a “business blind” counterpart, but rather get the opinion on their products directly from the consumer. Of course, this is especially true for new products that may not even be on the market yet – here they can try them out and get feedback directly.

In addition to some new varieties of fruit and vegetables, topics such as compostable packaging, biological pest control, mechanical sorting systems and much more also found their place. It is amazing what the packing and sorting machines are able to do nowadays.

Of course, the annual innovation award was also presented – I have written a separate article about this, let me surprise you who won with which innovation.

Here are a few impressions of this year’s fair.