Background Frits Popma
Frits Popma is the managing director of Popma Fruit Expertise. Frits has been active in the fresh produce industry since 1973. He worked with SVZ in the Netherlands, a leading company in Europe for processing/preserving fruit and vegetables. In 1990 he joined Chiquita Banana Company as Quality Inspector for tropical fruit. In 1991 he became Chief Quality Inspector in the port of Antwerp, Belgium. Frits was responsible for the quality inspection of bananas and tropical fruit. He worked in Europe, Central and South America and was involved in Quality Control from 'farm to shelf' of bananas and other tropical products. Frits role was to set up quality systems for tropical fruit and to work on banana plantations to understand the whole logistic, harvesting, packing etc.
Frits became Manager Ripening and Technical Services, responsible for the European market since 1995. He worked on projects like Chiquita 2000, a new ripening systems exclusive for Chiquita´s own customers. A container ripening for Eastern Europe and new ripening tools. Furthermore, he was the project manager for the construction of new ripening facilities in Belgium, Germany, France and the UK.
In 2001, he founded POPMA Fruit Expertise, an advising firm specialized in ripening tropical products. The services include, training ripeners and their staff, supply chain management, project management for new construction of ripening rooms and problem solving techniques, like reducing waste figures and improving sales.
Frits is working together with universities and knowledge centres to develop new ripening tools.