The recent General Assembly held in June in Paris, France, PROFEL members elected Michael Mayntz as new President for a mandate of two years. Mayntz is the fourth-generation owner of the Germanfruit processing company Göbber GmbH and President of the Fruit sector of the BOGK, the German Association of the Fruit, Vegetable and Potato Processing Industry.
The new President will be supported by two Vice-Presidents. Outgoing President, Jean-Bernard Bonduelle has been nominated Vice-President for the Vegetable Section within PROFEL. Jean-Bernard Bonduelle is Director of external Relations for the Bonduelle Group and acting President of Unilet, the French inter-professional organisation of vegetable processors and producers and also President of UPPIA, the Inter-professional Union for the Promotion of the Canning Industry. Julio Perez Ruiz, CEO of the Spanish Helios Group and currently Chairman of PROFEL’s Fruit Preserves Group, has been appointed as Vice-President for the Fruit Section
Together with the Secretariat in Brussels, the Presidency team will ensure that the new internal Strategic Agenda, adopted at the occasion of the General Assembly, will be executed. An important element of the Strategic Agenda is the recognition of the need for PROFEL to strengthen its contact building in Brussels and to communicate more on the sector’s assets and its activities. It was noted that European governments, opinion-leaders and consumers still appear to be poorly informed about the potential held by frozen and canned fruit and vegetables to provide a wide range of tasty foods that:
are highly nutritious and can significantly contribute to improving diets
can help to reduce food waste by convenient portions and longer shelf-life
are seasonally produced in Europe, from European agriculture
A new Communication Working Group will be established to investigate possibilities for improving PROFEL’s communication on these key elements.
PROFEL(Europe) is the European Association of Fruit and Vegetable Processors representing over 500 companies in 13 EU countries. Products represented by PROFEL are canned vegetables, frozen vegetables, dehydrated vegetables, jams and fruit preserves and canned fruit and compotes.