About WPTC
The World Processing Tomato Council (WPTC) is an international non-profit organization representing the tomato processing industry. Currently, its members, which are professional growers and/or processors organizations representative of their production area, represent more than 95% of the volume of tomatoes processed worldwide.
The organization was created in May 1998 during the 3rd World Processing Tomato Congress held in Pamplona (Spain) and is headquartered in Avignon (France).
The following general objectives have been given to the Council:
It was decided that the Council would only discuss a limited list of themes on which a consensus was possible.
An autonomous Commission was created for each theme, and three Commissions are currently operating:
A Commission on the exchange of information, chaired by Mike Montna (California)
This commission is tasked to collect information on the production and consumption of tomato products, analyze it and disseminate to all members.
Within this commission, a Sub-Commission on Research is chaired by Cosme Argerich (Argentina).
This commission is charged with analyzing the abundance of information, sometimes contradictory, published on the health benefits of tomato products and to coordinate the effort undertaken by individual associations on their domestic market to promote tomato products with the aim of increasing the global consumption of tomato products worldwide.
The WPTC has been recognized as a non-governmental organization by the Codex Alimentarius since February 1999. As such, its representatives may attend Codex Committee meetings and express the view of its members. This enabled notably the industry to have an input in the revised international standards for tomato concentrates and preserved tomatoes.
WPTC Executive Board
President
Manuel Vazquez
(Spain)
A native of Badajoz, Spain, Manuel Vázquez obtained his University Degree in Mechanical Engineering at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid in 1995. He followed several Finance and MBA programs at ITAE Business School, San Telmo Business School, EBS Business School and Universidad de Barcelona. His entire career has been developed in Conesa. Since 1988 was partially working during crops in all production/quality/engineering steps. In 1995 joined Conesa as a full time employee working in Production Department. In 1997, he was relocated as Quality Manager, in 1999 took the responsibility of Production Manager and in 2004 was appointed as CEO. In that role, has had the opportunity to travel to all areas around the world were tomato is processed and has dealt with the majors tomato users all around the world.
Vice-President
Nick Kastle
(California)
Nick Kastle has been in the food and agriculture industry for over 20 years. After five years working in grocery and food service procurement, he obtained his MBA at Saint Mary’s College, where his graduate project was on the company California Fruit and Tomato Kitchens. It was there that he was introduced to The Morning Star Packing Company. From that introduction, he spent ten years at Morning Star Packing, working across the processed tomato industry in industrial paste, food service pouches, and sun-dried tomatoes. In 2017 Nick moved to J.G. Boswell Company as Vice President of Marketing, where his primary responsibilities are processing tomatoes, pima cotton, and oilseeds.
Vice-President
Manuel Gonçalves
(Chile)
Manuel Goncalves joined Sugal Group in 2019 and is currently Chief Commercial Officer. Previously, Manuel was a consultant for Kearney (2009-2016) and McKinsey&Co (2018-2019), where he had the opportunity to serve clients in Portugal, Spain, Brazil, Angola and Italy. In between his consulting career, Manuel served as Chief of Staff to the Secretary of State for Tax Affairs in Portugal (2012-2015) and as Cabinet Member to the European Commissioner for Research, Science, and Innovation in Brussels (2016-2018). In parallel, he was Teaching Assistant of Corporate Strategy and other courses at Catolica Lisbon School of Business & Economics (2008-2016).
Manuel holds a Degree and a Master’s in Business Administration with Major in Finance from Catolica Lisbon School of Business & Economics and he completed the GMP from Harvard Business School.
Treasurer
Robert Giovinazzo
(France)
Robert Giovinazzo trained as an Agronomist at the Agronomic Institute of Paris-Grignon (France). He joined Sonito, the French National Interprofessional Association of Tomatoes intended for Processing, in 1996 initially as an intern, then full time in 1997 as Technical Manager. Since the beginning of 2021, he has been SONITO’s Director. He therefore has more than 25 years’ experience of the tomato processing sector about which he is passionate. For many years he has regularly participated in all AMITOM and WPTC events.
Past-President
Jason Fritsch
(Australia)
Jason has been CEO of Kagome Australia since 2016, prior to that Jason was in charge of the farming and field operations, a role he performed since 2005, where he was responsible for tomato, carrot, garlic and winter cereal crops. Jason holds a Bachelor of Rural Science from the University of New England and is a graduate of the Australian Institute for Company Directors. Since becoming the CEO of Kagome Australia, Jason and the Kagome team have developed and implemented a strategy that has seen the company diversify from a tomato processor into a fruit and vegetable processor. Today Kagome produces tomato paste and dice for industrial customers, a range of tomato based sauces for the food service channel; carrot, apple and pear concentrate for domestic and export markets; beetroot and garlic for key customers; and value added powders for consumer packaged goods.
WPTC Board
Each member association nominates one Delegate to represent it on the Board, with voting rights allocated depending on the volume of tomatoes processed in the country:
- Mediterranean Area, AMITOM: Alistair Blake
- California, CTGA: Bret Ferguson
- California, CLFP: Trudi Hughes
- Canada, OPVG: Keith Robbins
- Argentina, TOMATE 2000: Cosme Argerich
- Australia, APTRC: Charles Hart
- Brazil, TOMATE BR: Vlamir Breternitz
- Chile, CHILEALIMENTOS: Juan Manuel Mira
- China, CCFNA: Chao Junwen
- Japan, JTPA: Mie Kogoma
- Peru, ICATOM: Fernando Martinez
- South Africa, SATPA: Frik Prinsloo
WPTC Staff
General Secretary
Sophie Colvine
(France)
Sophie Colvine graduated in Food Science and Technology from ENSBANA Dijon (France) in 1990. She also holds a master’s degree in Marketing & Product Management from Cranfield University the UK. After working as a Food Scientist and Sensory Analyst for multinational food company RHM Foods in the UK, she joined the staff at the Mediterranean International Association of the Processing Tomato (AMITOM) in Avignon (France) in 1995 where she coordinated various international research projects and edited the magazine Tomato News.
She has been General Secretary of AMITOM since 2003 and of the World Processing Tomato Council (WPTC) since 2004.
