The Hive promises to get a real buzz going at this year’s show. A new ‘zone’ for the show, it will be open to businesses with emerging technologies which may be in their infancy and have not exhibited at such a show before as well as to those who may never have attended the show before. It will be a test pad of new ideas which visitors and fellow exhibitors at the show can explore.

One of the first entrants to ‘The Hive’ is Sean O’Keefe who is coming to the National Fruit Show to showcase COGZ which aims to help growers redistribute their waste product using an innovative online platform. He’s hoping that supermarkets, food producers, businesses or even consumers will see the potential in this and he will be using ‘The Hive’ as its launch to the industry.

Alongside Sean in ‘The Hive’ is Martin Lishman, a technology company dedicated to the fruit industry which will show its ‘magic apples’. The ‘magic apples’ are replica apples made by a 3D printer which contain an impact tracker designed to record the journey of an apple from the tree to the packhouse faithfully recording every (gentle) bump on that road. Its purpose is to let the grower know how much damage is inflicted and where so that changes can be made to minimise any bruising and therefore improve the quality of the fruit by the time it arrives on shelf. Show visitors will have the opportunity to see for themselves the ‘magic apples’ as well as exploring the other new faces in ‘The Hive’.