A foodie at the Fruitlogistica fair

Last week I went to the Fruitlogistica fair in the Berlin Messe. Incognito, as I am not a fruit or veg producer, nor a fresh produce buyer at a supermarket or a kitchen manager at a large hospital. 

Fruitlogistica is a large trade fair for just those people, people who get food on to the plates (or into the shopping trolleys) of the masses. The exhibitors are producers of food and processors of food, and also companies who make great big machines that help produce and process the foods.

I felt a bit like a tourist and had a whale of a time. I posed with the big pear outside, chatted to stall holders about their red carrots (from Pakistan), pink lettuce (from Italy) and baby white cabbages (from the Netherlands) and gawked at complicated bits of machinery. I ate tiny slivers of apple and a fascinating fruit called 'sapodilla' which looked like a mousey brown plum but tasted somewhere between a banana and a kiwi. If that is even possible.

 

Couldn't help myself

Here's a bit of a tour for you. The Louvre is wasn't but if you're into your food, it's a Grand Day Out all the same.

 

Cool cabbages from Italy

Where the Dutch tried to impress with potatoes, LED lights and endless cups of coffee...

Potato globe

Pink LED lights by Philips for extra fast growth, apparently. Bit scary though.

 ... the Italians had readymade soups, Ferrari's and wine at 11 am:

Soup-in-a-bag

Italians on a mission: how can you fail to impress when you bring a Ferrari?

The Malaysians and the Senegalese fought over pineapple property, while the Pakistani and the Japanese introduced some new kids on the block:

The packaging on offer was even more colourful that the fruit:

A melon dressed up as cheese

Oodles of pretty packaging options

Labels galore

Asian grape packet

There were things I instantly wanted to take home with me: 

Bachelor pad perfect

Stylish if somewhat perishable way to display kiwi fruit

And those things I never even knew existed:

Clever tree tepees for saving water

Environmentally friendly weed control machine

• 

A bundling machine tying anything and everything together with a bow on top

A few days later, all I have left is a stack of leaflets and a ripened Sapodilla. I do hope all that fruit that was on display has found a good home somewhere... I like the idea of Berlin's homeless gorging themselves on Senegalese pineapples and Portugese berries!

Sapodilla fruit

 Fruitlogistica, Messe Berlin, 4-6 February 2015