Thank you to Ocado for your kind words- very pleased that this was a success and everyone enjoyed them, we are always happy to help.
Norton Folgate and OrchardWorld have upgraded the telecommunications systems, and as a result we have new phone numbers, please see below
01206 848600 OrchardWorld
01795 433260 Norton Folgate
Please do not hesitate to contact us on these numbers for any queries that you may have, we look forward to hearing from you and will be happy to help
All the best- OrchardWorld and Norton Folgate
Tuesday 11th February was a change of climate for our Commercial, Citrus Procurement and Technical Managers. Away from the cold of the UK, a day in the sunshine and 28°c was a treat! Inviting one of our biggest customers to one of our longstanding Citrus suppliers, Les Domaines Agricoles in Morocco.
It was a busy but fun trip, with an initial visit to the pack house for a tour, then onto their nursery where 1/3rd of all Moroccan citrus trees start their life (750,000 on site at any one time). Then onto one of the orchards for lunch and a farm tour. It was fascinating to learn about their orchard husbandry, tree grafting process and all the great work with regards to people and water reduction. The day finished with an invitation from Les Domaines to dinner at a local restaurant in Agadir Marina.
Having worked with Les Domaines for 20 plus years, forming a very well managed and loyal relationship, we were confident that our customer would be pleasantly surprised by this wonderful set up. They are one of our Northern Hemisphere suppliers of the ‘Nadorcott’ mandarin which is is a patented variety that originated in Morocco. It was developed by the ‘Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique’ (INRA) in the 1990s. The variety is one of the most favoured seedless varieties, known for its delectable sweet taste and is incredibly aromatic. These little gems thrive in Mediterranean and subtropical climates with warm days, cool nights, and well-drained soils.
Les Domaines Agricoles is a leading Moroccan agricultural company with a strong specialisation in citrus production.The company is renowned for its high-quality citrus fruits, particularly oranges and clementines, which are exported globally. Famed for its Berkane Clementines, named after the Berkane region in northeastern Morocco. These clementines are seedless, easy to peel, and known for their sweet flavour and vibrant colour.
The company’s citrus orchards are primarily located in Morocco’s fertile regions, such as Berkane and Gharb, which benefit from a Mediterranean climate ideal for citrus cultivation.These regions offer optimal conditions, including abundant sunshine, moderate rainfall, and well-drained soils. The company plays a vital role in Morocco’s agricultural economy, contributing significantly to the country’s citrus exports. It provides employment opportunities and supports rural development in the regions where it operates.
A huge thankyou goes out to Matt, Simon and all the team at Les Domaines for making us feel very welcome and supporting us with this visit.
Another successful year for both our Norton Folgate, and OrchardWorld Teams at Fruit Logisitica, Berlin never fails to provide… proving to be very informative and pivotal to the business, having the opportunities to meet with customers and suppliers alike. There were a number of new varieties that were on offer, trying the likes of ‘Inored Story’ and ‘Reddy Crush’ to name but a few, but probably the most interesting was a new variety called ‘Zingy’ which was delectable.
Egyptian Mandarins and a new pack format for the Amalfi Lemons were of interest to the Citrus procurement team will be investigating further into the possibilities of these lines.
Hot topics from around the globe surround Trump and how his decisions will have an impact on the global trade. China being declared as the second largest importer of fresh fruit, and is forever in demand, for apples in particular. Turkey is showing remarkable export growth, the UK and EU account for 17% of its fresh fruit exports, half of which are Lemons and Easy Peelers whilst 8% of Turkish export fruits are Cherries alone.
Did you know that 75% of food crops depend on the vital work of the ‘Bee’ for pollination, so saving this remarkable winged insect from extinction is imperative. Albert Einstein once said, ‘If the bee disappeared from the surface of the earth, man would only have four years to live’. One company manages more than 300k beehives, collecting important information on their habitat, whilst other data platforms allow them to see where bees are most active in the field, giving them valuable information and a greater understanding of how these little insects work and perform.
Thank you, Berlin, for another inspiring visit.
Our 4th generation ‘Seville Orange’ grower was lucky enough to play a small part on one of the episodes in the series of ‘Amanda and Alan’s Spanish Job’. Jose and Amadora’s farm located on the outskirts of Seville consists of 1200 trees, of which some are over 100 years old. Having worked with Amadora for the past 18 years, holding a longstanding, committed and loyal partnership, we wanted to share this exciting moment with you.
Take a sneak preview into this idyllic setting to see where our fruit (a bittersweet variety used for making marmalade) spends its days before reaching your kitchen to be made into the most aromatic and gorgeously intense marmalade. This aired on Friday 24th January and the full episode can be viewed on BBC iPlayer, with the Orchards featuring 9 minutes in.
This is one of the biggest trade fairs that attracts people from across the globe with a staggering 66,000 plus trade visitors expected at Berlin’s Fruit Logistica between the 5-7th February, and with 84% of them being the decision makers, it’s no wonder that 96% of the exhibitors recommend this event. It not only inspires, but is the driver of innovations and communication covering the entire supply chain from producer to consumer.
It consists of three key areas :
– Fresh produce ideas with fruit and vegetables that are healthy for the planet and global economy as well as a bigger, better availability of organic ranges .
– Machinery and Technology is a must see, from advanced greenhouse tech and cultivation systems to innovations of the future.
– Logistics, redefining trade route and supply chains, with vast demonstrations on cost efficiencies and much more.
Ultimately it allows us to stay ahead of the competition. It is completely mind blowing, with global topics such as sustainability, we are able to keep ahead of demand with intelligent digital solutions. Irrigation technologies, specialised field robots, climate control, automated systems, food waste, field yields and precision farming technologies are just some of the topics you can expect to see and learn about.
Both Norton Folgate and OrchardWorld will be visiting suppliers and customers alike to keep on top of the expectations in this ever-demanding industry. If you would like to have a chat with us and arrange a meeting, please contact us on our ‘get in touch’ page and we would be happy to make arrangements.
Beloved Disney characters will play a key role in encouraging kids to eat more fruit as part of a major new initiative.
Launched in Ocado on 20 November, branded easy peel citrus and mini apples will be the first in a series of products linked to upcoming Disney releases such as December’s Mufasa: The Lion King and the 2025 live action remake of popular classic Lilo & Stitch.
Martha Springham, trading manager for produce at Ocado Retail, said: : “We hope this important initiative will encourage more children to choose healthy fruit as their snacks. We know how kids are drawn to colourful packaging featuring their favourite characters, and are excited to offer this to our customers in the fresh produce category.”
The apples in Ocado will be supplied by UK-based fruit specialist OrchardWorld, while the citrus will be supplied by sister company Norton Folgate. Further product lines will be announced as the initiative develops.
The launch comes against the backdrop of Lord Darzi’s sobering report on the state of the NHS in September, which noted that 2.5 million children and young people in England are affected by excess weight or obesity, with 1.2 million living with obesity-related complications. While studies have shown that children are more likely to be drawn to foods and enjoy their taste if they have recognisable cartoon characters on them, marketing has tended to be heavily weighted in favour of products high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS).
The new Disney campaign aims to turn this trend on its head by forming positive associations with healthy fresh produce and developing children’s desire to seek out fruit as a snack. As the initiative grows, it will be backed by marketing materials including a website with interactive games, competitions, fun facts about fruit, healthy eating tips and more, all featuring Disney graphics and characters.
OrchardWorld have joined forces with Monkwick Infant and Nursery School (part of the Sigma Trust) in an exciting opportunity to educate the next generation on the curriculum topic of fruit farming, but more importantly encouraging them to eat more fruit by making fruit fun! Family values are at the heart of our brand, so this was the perfect collaboration.
Our first event saw the Monkwick Infants school’s ‘Echo Council’ join us at the farm where some of our fruit is grown. These children set this club up as they care about the environment and are interested in what nature has to offer, so seeing the orchards on this scale was a huge eye opener for them. They absorbed the information we fed to them and took it back to the school to share with the rest of the class. We were blown away with their knowledge and I think that the tour opened their minds to opportunities, there was a noted realisation on the science that goes into running an operation like this.
They saw the irrigation system that drip feeds food and water to each tree, and how it is program led and smart enough to detect when a specific plant is wasting anything; it can re-program to supply less next time round to avoid waste. They also learnt how we breed beneficial bugs to eat the bad bugs in a plan to try and eradicate pesticides as much as possible and how bees are very important to the production of our fruit. They also found out that the orchards are planted from North to South, so that the east side gets the sun in the morning and the west side gets the sun in the evening to give the fruit the best opportunity to fully develop. And finally, how to pick the fruit in a specific way so that the buds underneath are protected for next year and the fruit is not bruised during the operation. None of this learning was complete without a tractor ride through the Apple and Cherry orchards, seeing the trees span for miles. We think it was safe to say they enjoyed themselves.
Our second visit took place last week, where we visited year 2s at the school: the focus for these visits was to try and encourage the pupils to try fruit that they had perhaps not tried before and engage them in a bit of fun to tempt them. They all did an excellent job of creating their very own fruit peacock. This allowed them to explore their creativity, and let their minds run wild with the possibilities, producing a colorful, tasty treat. Some of them could not help themselves and were eating the fruit to keep their energy up and creative flair alive. It was great to see them all enjoying themselves, we had reports that some children had not tried a plum before and loved them. After this we moved onto creating Halloween pumpkin faces using the apples as stencils. As you can imagine this was quite a hit with the children, the messier the better. Fortunately, we provided aprons for them! This even bought out the excitement in some of the quieter pupils.
We are pleased to say that the excess fruit did not go to waste, as we donated it to the kitchen. Happy Baking.
We would like to say a huge thank you to Monkwick Infant Infant and Nursery School ( part of the Sigma Trust)l for their support and an even bigger thank you to the year 2 pupils who made this a delightful day. We hope you enjoyed snacking on your Fruit peacocks 😊.
Sam, Bruce and Tom from our Norton Folgate team attended the Fruit Attraction 2024 from a Citrus and Stone Fruit perspective. It was a very interesting and informative visit, meeting with various growers, suppliers and customers proved to be very useful. We learned of a newly launched environmentally friendly product which will become useful for our Citrus fruit, the new ‘Recyclable net’ won an award for its innovative and sustainable concept. We are lucky enough to have alliances with some of the packaging suppliers, offering us the opportunity to use this on our Citrus fruit. The news was very welcomed by the likes of Ocado who are very interested in getting on board with this new innovation as soon as possible. Through cutting edge technology, the product is able to disappear completely and safely into nature. Keep an eye out on our website for more information on this in the coming weeks.
This is just one of the very reasons why it is imperative for us to attend events like this to ensure we are up to date and in some cases ahead of the market. In addition, it allows us to see, taste and discuss new products firsthand with a view to taking to our marketplace, such as ‘Finger Limes’ known as ‘Lime Caviar’ and ‘Pink Lemons’, both of which are premium fruits. There are busy times ahead with plenty of action points and further conversations to be had on NPD and technologies available to us.
Thank you, Fruit Attraction, for a very informative few days, helping us drive our business into the future.
October 8th to 10th saw the world of Fresh Produce gather at the Feria de Madrid for Fruit Attraction. Mark, Sam and Ian were there and by all accounts had a very busy week. This year saw more UK based retailers in attendance than ever before, so the team had meetings with nearly all our customers over the course of the 3 days and many of our growers, suppliers, and freight forwarders from around the world.
Across the 10 exhibition halls, areas are split into country / region specific zones and each hall also as a proportion of it dedicated to auxiliary services whether that is machinery, packaging, crates, technological services and much more.
Fruit Attraction has gained momentum over the last few years, and day one this year saw more people in attendance than in previous years. Many suppliers and growers use the time to confirm and secure their programmes with each other for the coming season, and it’s a great opportunity to do that face to face with multiple contacts from around the globe.
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