Post-Brexit future and the ‘Sugar debate’ take centre stage at NDFTA conference

California Raisins hosted the National Dried Fruit Trade Association (NDFTA) biennial conference on 22 September at The Roof Gardens, Kensington, London. The event attracted over 100 influential leaders, buyers, retailers and manufacturers.

Ian Wright CBE, director general of the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) gave his latest thoughts on how the market will encounter issues in the post-Brexit future, adding, “We anticipate there could be huge problems, particularly massive disruptions to our ports in March 2019 that will have a knock-on in the supply chain.”

The ‘Sugar debate’ was tabled as a key issue and will be a central focus for the NDFTA, particularly over the coming year. Rick Miller, Harley Street dietitian, gave some insights, advising that the sugar debate needs to be tackled head-on and people need to be educated about the difference between natural sugar and refined sugar.

Peter Meadows, marketing director for California Raisins UK and Scandinavia, commented in his keynote presentation that, “together with the NDFTA, we will be taking research findings to key opinion leaders and lobbying groups to address this balance.”

The conference was also an opportunity for a change of leadership, with Simon Brown, managing director at John Morley, departing the current post of chairman of the NDFTA and Simon Melik, managing director at Besana UK Ltd, inaugurated as the new figure head.

Simon gave a visionary speech expressing how the NDFTA will continue to represent the industry as the voice of the dried fruit market.

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