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Villafrut – 85 years of experience

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Villafrut, located in Verona (northern Italy), winner of the “Noah’s Ark” prize in 2012 dedicated to Italian companies of excellence, is one of the Iseppi companies:  Villafrut, Iseppi Frutta (Switzerland) and Villagrow (Spain).  The group’s joint sales in the European market reached 135,000 tonnes of fruit and vegetables, achieving a turnover of approximately €198 million euros. The company handles the entire chain from production to delivery, in line with the requirements of retail chains and with a view to eco-sustainability. Next year marks 85 years since the Iseppi family began its activity in the fruit and vegetable business. The company’s origins date back to the 1930s, when the Iseppi family began importing fruit and vegetables into Switzerland. From the outset, the firm has worked together, side by side, with its customers. In the 1970s, together with Swiss retailers it developed the first national programme of integrated pest management in production. Since then, their collaboration with retailers involves all aspects of the supply chain: planning the production according to the specific quality requirements of the customers, optimisation of logistics or the development of new products and packaging. Villafrut remains strongly focused on the final customer’s needs and has developed its own brand, Jolife. The new feature is that on Jolife products there is a QR code, a specific QR code for each individual product. Consumers can consult the specific information related to the specific product, such as recipes, nutritional benefits and information on its cultivation. 

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Leonardi Salvatore, high quality guaranteed

Leonardi Salvatore

Since 1979, this family business has been operating in the Verona market, specializing in preservation, processing and marketing of fresh fruit and vegetables. Continuously seeking out and selecting products, working with the latest technology, enables Leonardi Salvatore to deliver products punctually and with precision, ensuring the highest quality through packaging at its distribution centre by customer order. They also have their own logistics and transport system to maintain total control of the process, mainly focusing on Italian large-scale distribution.  
Under the brands Patata d´Oro, Terra e Sapori and Leonardi Bio, they supply a wide fruit and vegetable range. True to the Made in Italy concept, they show great appreciation for the typical regional products available throughout the Italian season, then continuing to import from Spain, France, Holland and Germany, among them citruses, watermelon, apple, strawberry, grape and pear, as well as potato, onion, tomato, lettuce and zucchini. “Guaranteeing the most top-quality fruit is a priority for us”, explains Leonardi Salvatore. “At our distribution centre we carry out rigorous inspections of the fruit we receive from the farmers, both externally by monitoring the appearance, colour, flavour etc as well as internally, by chemical and microbiological checks. Along with that, we guarantee the customer that the goods will meet all their needs in terms of packaging format and food safety. We have our own warehouse where we handle and pack the fruit under stringent health protocols. And we carefully manage our industrial refrigeration in cold chambers fitted with the latest technology to keep the fruit in optimum conditions. Then we have our own trucks to have full control of traceability from the field to the final destination, so we can control deliveries punctually and efficiently.  Despite being intermediaries, our way of working is more akin to that of a producer/exporter and this enables us to give all the guarantees you could wish, through total control of the process.” Some 80% of the fruit goes to the Italian market and 20% for export in the European Union. 

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Garden Frutta shows 20% annual growth

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The company located in Verona, Garden Frutta, leads the field in berry exports and imports. They recently began construction of a new 5000 m2 distribution platform with a state-of-the-art cooling system, to be up and running by January 2015. “We’re seeing 25% yearly growth and we need to have the appropriate infrastructure”, explains Matteo Mosca.  “Demand for red fruits is on the up”, adds Matteo Mosca. Garden Frutta has the most complete range of red summer fruits available, 360 days year. 40% of their fruit is self-produced, the rest coming from all over Italy: Verona, Trento, Piemonte and Sicily. In the Italian season, raspberries are harvested from April to December, followed by blackberries, from May to September and then blueberries, from June to September. When the European campaign ends, they keep their supplies going with imports from October to May, with raspberries from Spain and Mexico, blackberries from Mexico and Uruguay, and cranberries from Argentina, Uruguay Chile and Peru. Their produce is marketed under the brands Garden Frutta, Amor and the customer’s own trademark. The Italian market takes up 80% of their fruit, for both retail channels (60%) and traditional markets (30 %). The remaining 20% is exported to Austria, Germany and France, and Eastern Europe in Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia. “Eastern Europe is a growing market and a strategic target for our development plan”, says Mosca.

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Frutta C2, more value for kiwi

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During 2012/13 the FruttaC2 company became one of the front runners in kiwi and stone fruit in the Verona area. The stone fruit campaign was not as positive as for kiwi, which traded 20,000 tons last year, although in 2013/14 these volumes have slumped by -30% due to the PSA bacterium. Although kiwi quality has been very good, the lack of product has been felt. New kiwi plantations soon to come into production in the Verona area will replace the damaged groves. So the producers are confident that development of next year’s campaign will be better in terms of volume.  “Although demand for the kiwi in Europe continues to fall, in recent years we’ve seen it rising in overseas markets”, explains Alessandro Pernigo. “The fruit is good food, wholesome and good for your health. This is good news that we must transmit to regain consumer confidence, guaranteeing taste and quality.” Frutta C2 is joining forces with the large kiwi producers working towards greater coordination and unification of the parameters for quality Italian kiwi, through two major projects: First, in the public scope through the Ortofrutta Italia commission, operating under the direction of the Ministry of Agricultural Policy. And second, under the Kiwifruit of Italy consortium, a private sector initiative accounting for 20% of national production. 

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Ceradini to have new distribution centre

Massimo Ceradini

The Ceradini group is currently in an important period of growth and expansion of its capacities. To this end, a 7.500 m2 extension is being built at their Verona headquarters, which along with the existing 4.500 m2 will make up a total surface area of 12.000 m2, which will help them make the leap. “We are growing by 30% annually. This year we have worked an average of 13 tons of kiwi, and when the warehouse is ready, in 2015 we can easily reach 16 thousand tons”, explains Massimo Ceradini. Specialising in kiwi production and marketing under the brand names Kingkiwi, Kingfruit, Sweetkiwi, Goldkiwi and Greenkiwi, since 2011 they also have mountain strawberries of extraordinary quality in production, grown in greenhouses 1,100 metres above sea level in the Verona area.  Since its origins in 1975, quality and prestige have characterised the Ceradini Group’s activities, ranging from nursery work, planting and storage to kiwi and strawberry marketing. Respect for the land and rigorous standards in working with fruit have positioned this Verona company among the leading exports in overseas exports of top quality fruits. “Kiwi exports make up 80% of our sales, and 30% are shipped outside the EU”, explains Massimo Ceradini. Asia is a strategic market for the Veronese leaders. In this sense, they were pioneers in China and are the only private Italian company that has managed to ship the first kiwis to South Korea, a highly demanding market which recently opened up to Italian produce. Ceradini Group is present in this market with shipments of Hayward variety in transit for 45 days, arriving in perfect condition and meeting all the strict sanitary controls. 

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Cherry Passion, setting sights on Spain

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Love and passion are synonymous with the brand values of Verona company Cherry Passion. Their cherries are marketed under the company’s own name brand, Cherry Passion, and their tomatoes with the Couri Rossi trademark, available in Dutch vine tomato varieties Comet and Success. “We are currently looking for a partner in Spain to develop our brand with summer vine tomatoes”, affirms Pezzo. Although the season is tough for Italian cherries, Cherry Passion manager Stefano Pezzo notes that the Verona area is doing a little better than the rest of the country, as this season has kicked off with good quality fruit, despite achieving smaller calibres.  “We’re going through a bad patch: on the one hand, consumption has dropped and, secondly, the production costs are too high for the farmer”, explains the Cherry Passion Manager, who thinks that one way to improve the region’s position is by seeking higher calibre varieties which are better suited to the area.  Investing in more covered growing areas for produce to avoid dependence on climatic variations is another alternative considered by Pezzo, who also manages Fruittemprese for El Veneto and is a board member of flagship Verona company Bragantini.

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Continental Fruit strengthens links between producers and DGO

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With its headquarters in the Verona Market, Continental Fruit shifts a turnover of 20,000,000 kg, with main products including strawberry, grape, stone fruit, citruses and vegetables. Export & Sales Manager, Danielle Bagnara, said that due to the highly changeable weather, prices have been strongly affected, especially in the stone fruit sector: “As it’s a seasonal fruit, good weather is a deciding factor which affects the end customer’s purchasing decision. If it isn’t hot enough, sales go down. Moreover, we forecast a drop of 25% to 30% less in summer fruit volumes for 2014.”  Along with its main market, Italy (80%), Continental supplies countries abroad such as Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, Germany, Austria and Poland. “We’re interested in opening up to emerging countries, where we see consumption rising; the problem is that many of them fail to guarantee payments and the risks are very high”, explains Bagnara. Despite the hardships facing the sector, through excellent logistical organisation, speedy deliveries and direct trading Continental Fruit has built up a close relationship with Italian large-scale distribution, based on trust, effort and aptitude. Besides being present in the Verona market since 1978 as a point of sale, they have managed to create a bridge between producers and small- and large-scale distribution. To this end, they have created a B2B network (business to business commerce) of producer companies from the EU and other countries overseas, maintaining close-knit relations with Spain, France, the Netherlands, Greece, Morocco, South Africa and Argentina. 

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Tali Grapes investing in new varieties

David Ivri

Being the only licensee of Sun World in Israel, Tali Grapes continues to make innovation in varieties a priority. Table grape production is expected to rise by about 4%-6% yearly. Moreover the current emphasis is on continuously planting new varieties with more high-quality grapes. “Achieving this goal requires big investments in both effort and  finance,” said Tali Grapes managing director David Ivri. Its Moshav Lachish cooperative of 66 farmers grows a total of 500ha, for an estimated 15,000 tons of production this season. “We mainly supply the domestic market and maintain our positioning on premium grapes,” Ivri said. The European customers it delivers to are the most requiring retailers, such as  Marks & Spencers in the UK. Thomson is still the main variety produced, with 30% of total volumes. Scarlotta seedless (red) and Sable seedless (black) were the most recent new  plantings, with 45ha and 25ha respectively. “We are also testing new varieties from the Volcani Center,” Ivri said.

 

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RK Growers’ exclusive rights to Arra grapes in Europe

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“From the Growers to the World”, the Italian producers’ association RK Growers through the participation with AVI (Agricultural Variety Innovation) has exclusive rights to produce and sale the innovative program encompassing all ARRA grapes grown on European soil. “AVI is a very modern concept of work which sees marketing takes place under full transparency and the return on sales goes directly to the producer,” said Carlo Ligua partner in RK Growers. Crises are opportunities to use creativity and ingenuity to deal with new challenges – that’s the positive attitude of the members of RK Growers, which is currently one of Italy’s producer associations with the strongest growth. Focused on the export of Italian fruit, and with a dynamic and proactive approach, it has always been attentive to changing needs and trends. “We have allied our own production with that of other Italian producers so that together we can grow in the international markets with greater strength and better bargaining power,” explained the other partner of RK, Giacomo Nocentino,  who said that RK Growers’ vision of innovation is not only focused on the product but on how it is marketed. “We are always looking to be one step ahead” emphasized Paolo Carissimo, the third partne, in line with the company´s motto: “It’s all about what is next.”  Its Genoa office handles overseas trade, covering America, the Middle East, Asia and Oceania, while Eastern Europe is managed out of Bologna. Its headquarters in Saluzzo, Piedmont, have handled trade in the rest of Europe and also act as a buying agent for Iberia Frucht

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Salvi builds new grape pack-house

Italy is a large producer of table grapes with farming concentrated in two regions: Apulia (74.4%), and Sicily (19.7%). The table grapes marketed by UNACOA – a company involved in the global trade of of fruit and vegetables marketed under the Salvi brand – are harvested by C.J.O. (Ionic Consortium of Fruit and Vegetable Producers) in the region of Apulia, in the South East area of Bari (Rutigliano). An interesting development this year for Salvi is the start of construction of a new packhouse. Its goal is for all its production of seedless grapes is to have the same complete control and quality that characterizes Salvi fruit. “We’ve come to Bari to stay. Now our grapes will be produced, packaged and marketed by us, because it is precisely here in the Rutigliano where you get the best Italian grapes,” said commercial manager Oliver Stein. “We attach great importance to working on quality so that our grapes are positioned in the premium segment, returning to the level of high quality that has always typified Italian fruit. It is our ongoing task at Salvi, both as producers and growers, to ensure this happens,” Stein said.