Berry Talks, a new information format for the European berries sector, willdebut on 25 March, offering viewers a series of conversations with global leaders in the berries industry.
Each episode will be transmitted by video and the meeting will focus on an informal conversation with an expert from the sectors that make up the supply chain, from research to nursery, from production to trade, retail and the market.
The format is devised by an international pool composed of Jorge Pedro Rosa Duarte (Portugal), agronomist and consultant with global experience in the berries sector and owner of Hortitool Consulting, Shiham Zahidi (Morocco), agricultural trainer and co-organiser of the Morocco Berry Conference, and Thomas Drahorad (Italy), president of NCX Drahorad (broker on the international markets of berries) and editor of Italian Berry.
"The aim of Berry Talks is to share knowledge and experiences, in order to grow a category that in Europe still has great potential to develop," says Jorge Duarte. "In other global contexts (think of the United States or Chile, for example) there is a great history of collaboration between players in the supply chain: we want to contribute to creating in Europe, too, the climate of dialogue, sharing and collaboration that has borne so much fruit in America".
According to Shiham Zahidi, "over the years at the Morocco Berry Conference, we have hosted personalities with a very high level of professionalism. With these conversations, which we have called Berry Talks, we aim to unite the experiences and make them the common heritage of a community of berries professionals from Morocco to Georgia, from Turkey to Scotland, from Italy to Sweden, involving the main international research, production and market players.
Thomas Drahorad explains his participation in this project: "Berry Talks is based on the same philosophy as Italian Berry: to share information and expertise in order to make the berries sector grow together; the category still has a lot of room to grow and it is more useful to open up than to try to defend one's own garden. In Europe we are all looking at what has been achieved in twenty years of coordinated supply chain action in the UK: this is the climate we want to foster. We already have a list of Italian operators in mind who will be invited to attend Berry Talks."
The first event will feature Miguel Hermes Ahumada, a professional agricultural systems specialist with experience in variety development, integrated pest management, fertigation, substrate production and post-harvest management with a special focus on berries. He is considered a high-energy innovator known for his versatility, vision and teamwork.
The first episode of Berry Talks will be broadcast from 6pm on Friday 25 March(subscribe here); the conversation will be in English and Italian Berry will publish a summary in Italian in the following days.
