October 2, 2020
As of 1st July , 2020 Mr Stéphane Layani has been appointed as the acting Chairman of WUWM. Mr Layani will chair the Board of Directors and the WUWM organization as “Appointed Chairman” until the Florence Conference. An official election will occur during the annual Meeting of the Union Membership in Florence in 2021.
Mr Layani would like to take this opportunity and thank Mr Ma for all the milestones that he has accomplished during his mandate which he summarises as follows:
“Mr Ma was a great and dedicated WUWM leader, he worked a lot to make our organization stronger, proposing a clear agenda for the forthcoming years and new WUWM Statutes. During his mandate the WUWM had several very successful conferences and the WUWM’s membership increased also significantly. I fully understand that now is the time for him to focus in CAWA’s and China’s challenges, and I am grateful to still have him as an special advisor.”
Mr Layani stressed that the COVID crisis showed to the world how food security is a capital issue for human societies, and that is a stake that is far to be “obvious to manage”. During the COVID crisis we saw citizens from all over the world running to the supermarkets to buy food and being afraid of having shortages in the food distribution. All the trends show that a large part of the population prioritized to buy during the crisis fresh produce instead of processed food.
In this sense, Mr Layani claims that wholesale markets can be proud of their work: “if the supply chain resisted it is because the wholesale markets were there”. He stressed that more than ever citizens want to eat fresh and local produce with less environmental impact and with a guarantee of traceability and safety. Wholesale markets are the only ones today that have today the structure to provide for this demand.
The crisis also showed how important it is to have a modern infrastructures with high sanitary regulations all around the world. WUWM is in this sense a powerful tool to spread good practices and have international modern standards for wholesale markets. Mr Layani stressed that we are in front of a big opportunity to foster the position and visibility of our organization.