YOUR INDUSTRY
Photo: Trefor Ward
The 2021 Persimmon Export Season It not possible to reflect on persimmon seasons in the current environment, without reference to Covid-19. By Ian Turk : Persimmon Industry Council product group manager The 2020 national lockdown happened right before the start of the persimmon industry’s harvest – just as growers were starting to send fruit samples for pre-harvest residue testing. Air freight, which is for the majority of our early season sales, was hit hard by availability and therefore price, but also apparent low priority. Exporters were consistently having consignments at the start of the season bumped from flights. Far from optimal cool chain management for perishable products.
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The ORCHARDIST : OCTOBER 2021
The Persimmon Industry Council (PIC) is focussed on the export sector – but seeing the issues in front of us for the coming season we quickly put a small domestic promotion in place. With independent outlets not open, quite an amount of fruit that was of smaller sizes or lower quality was not sent to market. It was felt that wholesalers and retailers were being quite wary, by not wanting to take on any risk in a difficult market – and not accepting anything other than the best quality produce.
...freight uncertainty has continued and again we have seen a higher than normal focus on sea freight where possible What was the carry over effect into 2021? Market wise, freight uncertainty has continued and again we have seen a higher than normal focus on sea freight where possible.
