Golden Vale's Jim Murphy must be wishing he had shareholders like those in Fyffes.

Given the pasting the Fyffes shares have taken in the past year-and-a-half and the washout at worldoffruit.com, Fyffes might have forgiven some harsh words for their board.

But no. Last week's annual general meeting was a veritable love-in between Neil McCann and his shareholders, made easier for the Fyffes chairman by the penitential tone of his opening address. After that, the message was upbeat - the worst is over and this year is going to be a lot better.

The market has responded well to the comments, with earnings forecasts for this year and next upgraded by around 10 per cent. It's still a long way to go the levels where Jim Flavin's DCC made its windfall gains from its Fyffes shares, but any improvement is no doubt welcome.