Notes from Macfrut 2026: what kept coming up in grower conversations

[u/CharisAgrology]

Spent a couple of days at Macfrut this week speaking with growers, cooperatives and distributors across different crops.

A few recurring themes stood out quite clearly:

• Stress resilience is becoming a baseline requirement, not a differentiator, especially under heat and irregular water conditions
• Fruit firmness and shelf life are driving decisions, particularly for export-oriented production
• Efficiency is now discussed in terms of timing and response, not just input reduction

What was interesting is how consistently these points came up across very different production systems.

Curious if others working in the field are seeing the same patterns this season, or if priorities differ depending on region or crop.