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:

To create permanent links between professional grower and/or processor organizations, to co-ordinate actions undertaken to safeguard their interests.

To study and recommend to member organizations any action intended to better organize the markets and favour fair competition.

To undertake any action, in agreement with its members, in view to increase consumption of tomato products.

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).

A Commission on Health & Generic Promotion, chaired by Luca Sandei (Italy).

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.

A Commission on the International Legislation, chaired by Carlos Gervas (Spain).

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

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

Antonio Casana

(Italy)

Antonio Casana was born in Italy in 1966 and graduated in Agricultural Science from the Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Piacenza (Italy) in 1991, where he did his dissertation on tomato genetics. He began his career as a Quality Assurance Manager for a company processing and canning tomatoes and other vegetables between 1993 and 1999, then was an administrator of Suncan, a fruit processing company from 1999. Since 2003, he has been with Solana SpA, a leading tomato processing firm in Italy, initially as General Manager, and since 2013 as CEO. Between 1996 and 2004 he was also a contract professor on Food technology at the Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Piacenza-Cremona. Antonio is currently President AMITOM, President of the vegetable product sector at UIF (Unione Italiana Food), member of the BoD Anicav and President of the Sustainability committee of TomatoEurope of which he is a past President.

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

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.

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: Dimitris Nomikos
California, CTGA: Bret Ferguson
California, CLFP: Trudi Hughes
Canada, OPVG: Keith Robbins
Argentina, TOMATE 2000: Guillermo San Martin
Australia, APTRC: Charles Hart
Brazil, TOMATE BR: Vlamir Breternitz
Chile, CHILEALIMENTOS: Juan Manuel Mira
China, CCFNA: Chao Junwen
Japan, JTPA: Kenichiro Nemoto
Nigeria, NATPAN: Mira Mehta
Peru, ICATOM: Fernando Martinez
South Africa, SATPA: Frik Prinsloo

WPTC Staff

General Secretary

Sophie Colvine

(France)

Sophie Colvine has been General Secretary of WPTC since 2004.
She graduated in Food Science and Technology from ENSBANA Dijon (France) in 1990 and also holds a MSc in Marketing & Product Management from Cranfield University the UK. After working as a Food Scientist and Sensory Analyst for multinational food company Premier 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 is currently also the General Secretary of AMITOM and an Administrator of Tomato News.