POTATO PRODUCERS AND SUPPLIERS ARE IN THE FINALISTS LINE-UP FOR FRESH PRODUCE AWARDS
A NUMBER of potato industry specialists, including growers, suppliers, technical experts, retailers and more have been shortlisted for awards covering topics such as sustainability, supply, agritech and workplace conditions in the 2024 FPC Fresh Awards, organised by the Fresh Produce Consortium.
Potato suppliers Albert Bartlett and Greenvale are amongst those shortlisted for The Sustainability Excellence award, alongside Fresh Direct (whose potato suppliers include family-owned E Park & Sons), Innovation Agritech Group, SoilPoint (whose products aim to boost soils for potato crops), Heritage Fine Food Company (which works with South-West growers to supply fresh potatoes to wholesale and household markets) and a potato fertiliser producer Unikem.
Fresh4uProduce, which supplies and imports a number of potato varieties from all over the globe, is a finalist for the Wholesale Fruit & Veg Supplier of the Year award, alongside Fresh Direct and Heritage Fine Food Company.
Fresh Direct is also a finalist for the Best Marketing Campaign award.
The award for agritech and innovation excellence shortlisters include BASF Nunhems, Gardin, HarvestEye, Innovation Agritech Group, IPM Scoutek (pest management software), Jones Food Company, potato equipment manufacturer Martin Lishman, Diss-based soil biology insights firm PES Technologies, The Institute for Agriculture and Horticulture (TIAH), and Unikem.
Technology Champion finalists include Fresh4cast, a provider of forecasting and planning tools for growers; Lincolnshire-based Jones Food Company which designs, builds and operates vertical farms; Loughborough-based Zayndu, the creator of ActivatedAir™, a technology that eliminates seed-borne pathogens.
In the people categories, two women working within potato suplly have been shortlisted for The Rising Star of the year award. These are Cinderella Sharaf Eldin, Sales Manager for AHMS FOR Exports, a family-owned company which cultivates and exports the the Rozita and Spunta potato varieties, and Jones’ R&D grower Hannah Hobhouse. David Tugwell, Operations Manager for ProducePackaging UK which produces potato sacks, flexible wrapping and trays for fresh potatoes, as well as ready meal trays for processed potato products, is shortlisted for the Manager of the year award.
The Best Place to Work Award finalists include Aldi UK, BX Technologies (supplier of environmental farm management software), MorePeople (a recruitment specialist for all businesses operating from ‘field to fork’). MorePeople and ProducePackaging UK are also finalists for the Team of the year award.
Retailer awards
Co-op, M&S SImply Food, Premier, Tesco Express and Sainsbury’s Local are the finalists competing for The Convenience Retailer Award.
Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose are competing to be named Online Fruit and Veg Retailer 2024, while Multiple Fruit and Veg Retailer of the year finalists are Aldi, Lidl, Marks & Spencer, Tesco and Waitrose.
