PICO To Highlight New Fruit Varieties At London Produce Show & Conference Showcase

Cairo – Avocados, mangos and pomegranates will be among the new product lines featured by major Egypt-based fruit exporter PICO at a new event for the international fresh produce sector, the London Produce Show & Conference, from 4-6 June.

The Egyptian company, which described the UK as its single most important export market, will be showcasing a new, expanded product range at the conference and exhibition, which will be staged at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel next month.

The new additions to PICO’s range – Wonderful pomegranates, mangos and several varieties of avocados – are just some of the recent product launches from the company, with other introductions including cherry, plum and mini plum tomatoes, and organic herbs.

With the Cairo-based company in the middle of its current table grape export season, PICO will also be using the occasion to highlight new varieties being trialled1, while also showcasing the vast range of grapes that it already has in commercial production, including Sugraone, Superior and Red Globe2.

As the company’s Heike Hagenguth explained, PICO will be attending at the London Produce Show as part of the Sun World presence, appearing during the three-day show at the US company’s stand.

“Being part of the Sun World stand, we will of course speak about the Sun World grape and stone fruit varieties that we produce under license, while also introducing other crop and varietal developments that belong to other breeders3,” she said.

“We are also interested in speaking about new additions to our fruit basket like avocados, mangoes, pomegranates.”

UK opportunities

The UK is at present PICO’s largest overseas market, with approximately 45% of the Egyptian company’s total export production – principally accounted for by strawberries, grapes and stone fruit – transported by sea and air to British clients.

However, despite the highly developed nature of the UK market, Hagenguth said there were plenty of opportunities for further growth still to be realised by exporters such as PICO.

“We definitely see room for further growth through greater export specialisation – for example varietal developments in close cooperation with grocery retailers – and by being able to implement client requirements in terms of certification, logistics, packaging, labeling and so on,” she said.

Hagenguth said PICO hoped to highlight these and other topics at the upcoming London Produce Show, which despite being a newcomer to the international trade fair calendar would enable the Egyptian company to make direct contact with clients in the UK market.

“We believe that the event – although it cannot compare to the big trade shows – will have a good coverage and impact in the UK market, and expect that the networking will bring a lot of benefits,” she added.

As a company, PICO has almost 40 years of experience of producing and exporting products including table grapes, strawberries and stone fruit to international customers.

PICO has always been a trend setter and innovator among Egyptian producers and has introduced many crops and varieties to the country, with the company’s own Intellectual Property (IP) department overseeing licensing of the varieties in Egypt and protecting the IP rights of breeders.

The firm, which farms over 8,000 hectares of land and was the first grower in Egypt to cultivate the country’s arid desert, now receives 80% of its turnover from exports, which are certified by GlobalG.A.P., BRC and ISO 22000, among others.

Source: PICO