SGF IFU Asia Roadshow 2017: India
After a successful roadshow in Latin America in 2016, IFU and SGF jointly decided to hold another roadshow in 2017, but organize it a little bit different: After 5 countries in two weeks in 2016, we wanted to keep the 5 countries for 2017 – but adjust our seminars even more to match with crop seasons and local events. So we chose the 5 countries for 2017, India, China, Thailand, Japan and UAE and started organizing.
Day 1 - store checks and a first glimpse into the city
Our first stop of the roadshow took us to Bengaluru, India, in the first week of March 2017. Upon arrival on Sunday, March 5th, we met Mr. Venkat Prahlad, who is the SGF auditor for India and helped organizing the seminar, the plant visits and everything related to our trip to India.
Venkat gave us some insight views on the city, the culture and of course the food and beverage market. We had time to do a quick store check and try some local produced bottled juices, and could even meet Venkat`s family, which was a big honor for us.
Day 2 - plant visit "Mother Dairy"
On Monday, we visited a mango processing plant of Mother Dairy and gained a lot of knowledge about the mango industry in India, the pesticide residue issues, the dairy market and Mother Dairy`s efforts for good and sustainable practice not only within their plant, but also how they benefit the industry by producing leaflets etc. to educate farmers about what practices are recommended and what not.
Mother Dairy even had a nice “surprise” for us: we saw the aseptic packaging system from IFU member Goglio, which we have learned a lot about at last years` CibusTec in Parma, in action!
After we have followed all rules of good manufacturing practices, we were treated with a tasting of Mother Dairy`s superb product range and finally went back to the city, as we had to make the final arrangements for the seminar on the next day.
Day 3 - the SGF IFU Asia Roadshow INDIA
Tuesday morning was our “big day”, our first seminar of the 2017 roadshow in the My Fortune Hotel Bengaluru.
The seminar was opened by John Collins, Executive Director of IFU, and Dr. Joachim Tretzel, President of SGF.
Dr. Tretzel then gave us a short introduction to SGF and a detailed speech about the status-quo in voluntarily self control in India, always accompanied by his life-long experience in the juice industry. Afterwards, I had the chance to introduce IFU, the work we are doing on a global basis and the tasks of the commissions, and our new social media initiative “#juicy5”.
After a quick juice break, taking some pictures and talking to participants, we already started into the second block of the day, which was “Methods, Codes and Guidelines”. John gave us an overview about IFU methods and why it is so important to work with the most up-to-date methods, Venkat presented how a “typical” SGF audit looks like and that he sees his role not as an examiner, but a friend who helps seeing threats and finds solutions, and Mrs. Aintzane Esturo, Communications Head and Technical Manager at SGF explained the details of how to check the juice value chain.
All three topics were highly appreciated by the audience and raised a lot of questions and discussions, which was great for us as we could see how important these kind of meetings are, especially in countries where there is no local juice association taking over the task of bringing the industry together.
A tasty lunch with Indian specialities, which included mango pulp for dessert as the icing on the cake from one of the factories of our participants, gave us the energy to start immediately into the second half of the day.
The third block dealt with sustainability issues which is a hot topic in India. We learned about initiatives from the industry and even had some “spontaneous presentations”. Mr. Sunil Gupta, Head of QA and Food Safety at Jain Farm Fresh Foods held a first presentation about “Jain GAP”, a food safety, quality and traceability management system at farm level and a second one on the “Mango Unnati” project. The “Farmer awareness campaign and good agricultural practices in Mango”, an initiative towards residue free mango products, was explained by Mr. Bennur Nijaguna, Procurement Head at Mother Dairy. All three projects were really impressive, as you could feel the motivation and social awareness behind these “grassroot-movements”.
Mr. Ashok Batra from Rainforest Alliance and Aintzane closed the session with two presentations giving us an idea on sustainability, directed by the other direction: The global initiatives are used as pattern that the Indian industry can use for their activities.
The seminar continued with a view into the future: How can we make even more out of the fruit or vegetable? Mr. Ajit Brahma, Sales Manager from John Bean Technologies India, presented JBT`s ideas of opportunities for the use of fruit by-products, especially related to citrus fruits. Mr. Nick Shea, Managing Director at Bucher Alimentech, explained us state-of-the-art processes for upgrading of citrus juices and by-products and how Bucher is adapting their machinery to suit the Indian market. Both presentations were well appreciated by the audience and a lot of questions were asked.
At the end of the day, SGF surprised us with a reception for one of their “longest-serving auditors” Mr. Venkat Prahlad, who is well known not only in India, but also in many other countries in South and South East Asia. We have to admit that due to the long experience of Venkat this first seminar of our roadshow 2017 has been a big success, as he has out so much energy in the organization and invitations to the industry!
Day 4 - plant visit "Exotic Fruits"
On Wednesday, March 8th, we could visit Exotic Fruits and learn everything about their very modern plant and their products, which we had a chance to try, as well. The visit was topped by visiting one of the farms close-by that delivers mango to Exotic Fruits. There, we heard about the irrigation system and saw the perfect results. But most impressive was the lady who takes care of the trees: She is deaf-mute but still managed to explain us her everyday work, and we could see: She loves her trees and tries to do the best for them Meeting her on International Women`s Day was a special honor for us!
Day 5 - lab visit
Thursday, our very last day in India, we were invited to see the laboratories of Eurofins in Bengaluru. We saw their facilities and chatted with their employees, which is always very helpful as we can establish a personal contact to the people who work with IFU methods and it gives us an idea of what developments would be helpful for the future.
Our trip to India finished with a visit to Venkat`s office, where we had a pure vegetarian Indian meal while reviewing the week, the insights we gained and the challenges we heard of in the Indian market.
We want to especially thank Mr. Venkat Prahlad and his assistant Mr. Narayanan Baskaran for all the work they put into the India roadshow as well as our sponsors Bucher Alimentech, John Bean Technologies, Citrosuco and Anuga Foodtec, who were a big help for having such a nice hotel and food for our seminar.
