Category: Speakers 2019

Director, Hurdletree Associates (UK)

Jim started with Asda in the mid 80’s as a Quality Inspector in their Produce Depot near Bristol. He moved to Leeds as their first Produce Technologist in 1987 where he set up their technical standards and specifications.

In 1994 he moved into the supply base with Fesa UK where he stayed for 3 years before moving to Del Monte in 1997 where he became their Technical Director.

In 2005 he joined IPL just after their start up and became their Technical Director when they were bought by Walmart in 2009. In 2011 he was seconded to Asda as their Technical Director for 15 months before returning to IPL as their Group Technical Director. In 2015 he moved to Walmart as their Senior Director for Fresh Food Manufacturing which covered all of Walmart’s Fresh Food Manufacturing sites globally.

He left Walmart in February 2019 to set up his own consultancy. During his time with IPL he was a Trustee of the Asda Foundation and Vice Chairman of GlobalGAP as well as being on the Fresh Produce Consortium’s Council as the Chair of their Technical Working Group.

Jim is married with 2 daughters and lives in South Lincolnshire. He is a long-suffering England Rugby fan.

General Manager Yentzen Group and Global Grape Summit Host (Chile)

Gustavo Yentzen is an accomplished entrepreneur and the founder of the online news sites PortalFruticola.com, FreshFruitPortal.com and ChinaFruitPortal.com. He is also the managing director of a strategic marketing consultancy company called Yentzen Consulting.

A marketing professional specialising in consumer behaviour, Gustavo has more than 15 years of experience in communications, marketing and advertising within the international fresh fruit sector.

Previously, he led the global promotional campaign for the Chilean fresh fruit industry, and for more than 10 years he represented the Produce Marketing Association (PMA) in Chile and Peru.

In 2017, he launched The Global Cherry Summit, a leading event for the international cherry industry.

Additionally, Gustavo has taken part as a panelist and moderator at a number of leading fruit industry events in the US, Mexico, Australia, China and Brazil, among others.  

Director of Special Projects, Pandol Bros. Inc (US)

John Pandol is the Director of Special Projects for Pandol Brothers Inc, a farming and sales concern based in Delano, California specializing in grapes.

After graduating in International Marketing from the University of Southern California, John did additional studies at the Catholic University of Chile.

He has 25 years of experience in supplier development in Chile and Mexico and export trading from the USA to 20 countries.

In the early 2000s, John began focusing the entire supply chain in the North American market. Currently he spends 120-plus days visiting production areas, retail outlets and all intermediate points in addition to trade shows and industry events. John comments frequently at various events, in the press and online.

He also serves as Chairman of the Grape Division of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas, a trade group of importers based in Nogales, Arizona.         

Agrimessina (Italy/UK)

Born in Italy but educated and living in London, Carlo Berardi looks after the UK imports for his family business, Agrimessina, and manages the UK company Good Produce, which handles imports of fresh produce from over 10 countries.

Agrimessina is a leading Italian grower-exporter of seedless table grapes, accounting for over 80% of the Italian grapes sold in the UK.

Carlo started in the grape industry in 2012 and has since grown the business considerably by offering retailers and non-retailers a good product at a fair price with great service and a fast response.

Currently, Carlo handles over 2 million cartons of grapes in the UK during the Northern Hemisphere season.

With great insight into the industry, he often offers his customers helpful opinions on grape market dynamics.

Commerical Director, The Grape Company (South Africa)

I was privileged to be born in a South African wine and table grape growing family, where I developed my passion for table grapes as a unique product.

Studied at the University of Stellenbosch B.Sc. (Hons) Agriculture.

Started off at The Grape Company in 2002, served as Technical Manager for five years and currently acting as Commercial Director.

God has blessed me with a wonderful wife (happily married for 15 years) and He also blessed us with four beautiful boys!

Consumer Insight Director, Kantar Worldpanel (UK)

Joined Kantar Worldpanel in 2016 having previously worked in two other market research roles; Psyma Germany on a student placement and GfK as a graduate.

Worked with a variety of Chilled Convenience manufacturers before moving to work in Kantar’s Produce team at the end of 2018.

Vice President of Licensing, Sun World Innovations (Australia) (US)

Garth started his 38-year career in the horticultural industry working in New Zealand’s fruit production sector in the early 1980’s, specifically in apples, kiwifruit and stone fruit. This was followed by a short stint in Chile during the early days of the kiwifruit industry.

He then spent four years in Tasmania working for the state to help develop the wine grape, fruit and floral industries.

Following that, he returned to New Zealand to work in exports of fresh produce to Japan, Southeast Asia and the U.S., later moving onto mainland Australia to work in the irrigated regions of the Murray Valley. There he spent 18 years in Mildura working as an independent consultant in grapes, citrus, stone fruit, nuts and other horticultural crops. Seven years ago, he joined Sun World as Licensing Manager for Australia and in 2016 took on the role of Vice President of Licensing, responsible for the six global offices and overseeing the importation, testing and commercialisation of Sun World’s new grape and stone fruit varieties.

Garth holds a bachelor’s degree in Horticulture from Lincoln University, a postgraduate diploma in Agricultural Economics from the University of New England and a Master of Agribusiness from the University of Queensland.

Category Buyer for Grapes and Stonefruit, Sam’s Club (US)

Phil Macy has been with Sam’s Club for 27 years. 24 of those years have been with Sam’s Produce.

Currently responsible for Grape and Stone Fruit Categories.

Advocate of Flavor, Quality, and the best grape varieties.

Lead Technical Manager – Fruit & Floral, Sainsbury’s Supermarket

Paul is the Lead Technical Manager for Fruit & Floral at Sainsbury’s, the UK’s second-largest supermarket.

Paul started his career in produce in 2008 as a placement student at MMUK, supporting the technical teams covering citrus, table grapes and flowers. Following his graduation from Harper Adams University, he started a new role at MM as a source technologist, and followed the grape harvest around the world, supporting and advising growers in order to deliver the best quality and varieties to MM’s retail customers in the UK.

Paul returned to the UK and worked as grape technical manager at MMUK until he decided to take an opportunity ‘on the other side of the fence’ by joining Sainsbury’s in 2015. He has been technically responsible for a number of fruit categories, including grapes, kiwifruit, stonefruit, bananas, melons, pineapples and exotic fruit.

Paul was part of the team that recently conducted a large Value Chain Analysis project, which resulted in Sainsbury’s new strategic direct sourcing model in produce. More recently, he is now the Lead Technical Manager overseeing the fruit and floral category from a technical perspective.

Managing Director, EuroFruits (India)

Nitin Agrawal is the founder promoter of Euro Fruits Pvt. Ltd.

Established first state of the art produce packhouse facility in India in 1993 rated in 2017 as well as one of the best in the world by European supermarkets, USAID/USDA officials, Indian Government agencies.

Euro Fruits is India’s leading exporters of Table Grapes to the European markets.

Euro Fruits is India’s most accredited fresh produce exporter with GlobalGAP, BRC, BSCI, SMETA-ETI, Fair Trade, ISO 14000, ISO 18000 Certifications. India’s only Produce company certified as per bespoke UK retailers’ standards.

Associated with over 250 Progressive GlobalGAP, certified Table Grapes farmers in Nasik/Sangli regions of Maharashtra.

Regular participant in the international fresh produce trade fair & exhibitions.