The Netherlands plays a key role in global trade
Source: European Statistics Handbook, Fruit Logistica
Eosta, 100% plastic-free packaging
Cutting-edge innovations now allow Eosta to offer all its fresh fruit and vegetables plastic-free. Besides its Natural Branding laser labelling, Eosta now has paper flowpacks and boxes in different sizes as new plastic-free options. With Natural Branding, the customer marks the fruit’s skin so packaging is not required. This technique has saved 30 million packaging units and 1.5 million kilograms of CO2 in the last five years. In its new plastic-free flowpacks, Eosta has developed various options made of paper and cardboard for soft fruits, hard fruits and other products: PaperPack, PaperBox, PaperSleeve and PaperShaker. Eosta is presently Europe’s most innovative importer, packer and distributor of organically grown fresh produce.
Staay Food Group acquires Direct Fruit Services
The international supplier of fresh fruits and vegetables (with its own production area) has strengthened its position in the pome fruit market with the purchase of Direct Fruit Services. DFS will continue its activities unchanged and independently under the trusted leadership of Alex van Ieperen. However, there will be close collaboration with Frupaks-Vernooij B.V., another fruit arm of the Staay Food Group. With this acquisition, Staay underlines its ambition to play a leading role in the field of apple and pear cultivation and marketing.
OTC Organics invests in high-tech storage centre
Based in the Netherlands, OTC started out as a trading company before moving into organic production. The firm’s main partners are in Peru, South Africa, Colombia and the Dominican Republic, where it owns 400 ha. OTC also cooperates with 50 different growers in the Netherlands. Last year, the company marketed 10,000 tons of onions, 6,000 tons of potatoes and 1,500 tons of pumpkin. OTC has recently invested €5 million in a 4,000-ton-capacity high-tech storage facility able to control temperature and humidity simultaneously, thus enabling the year-round supply of local production. Meanwhile, the firm’s theme for this year is “From trading to farming”, which aims to connect farmers and customers by holding meet-and-greets where organic producers will learn more about customers’ needs.
