Consorzio La Trentina will attend Fruit Logistica for the 13th year in a row. "The fair is very important for apple and kiwi supply programmes. Many meetings will be scheduled and it will be the start of a series of events abroad," explains general manager Simone Pilati.
The apple campaign is halfway through and "there has been a 10% increase in production."
"The red and bicoloured apple trend is positive. There is more produce coming from Poland but we have not experienced drops in sales because the market is focused on high-quality produce. Gala is doing well in Italy, Middle East, North Africa and even Brazil thanks to its combination of sweetness and crunchiness."
Golden Delicious did not do so well. "Despite the excellent sales rhythm and prices and a good quality, it is not doing as well as the red variety. This is probably due to the hot summer and rainfall during collection, which damaged the produce. What is more, consumption in Europe is slowing down, though demand is holding up in Eastern Europe."
"Still, many destination markets are experiencing geopolitical problems - for example, Algeria introduced a protectionist regime and Egypt implemented credit restrictions. Volumes remain the same but the situation is less dynamic. This affects all varieties and mainly the Golden one because it is the most commercialised. There is still a long way to go before the end of the season, though"
There may be a solution for the complex international politics. In the past few years, La Trentina chose to sell 50% of its products on the domestic market and 50% abroad. "The important thing is to diversify foreign destination markets because it is easy to have problems if you deal with single areas. That is what helped us with the Russian ban or with North Africa."
In 2016, the company will continue with the reorganisation project started during the summer. "In August 2015 we have started transferring pre-grading and packaging plants from our partners to La Trentina to obtain more economies of scale. In the past, we used to manage only the commercial part, but we are now dealing with the production part."
For what concerns the commercialisation of the product, "we need to focus on our values and, most of all, the land. Our produce comes from a territory suitable for apple cultivation and we must be better at promoting this apple-land connection."
Consorzio La Trentina will attend Fruit Logistica, in hall 2.2, stand D-02, within the Trenino Sviluppo area, where it will showcase its various products - Golden Delicious, Gala, Red Delicious, Granny Smith, Morgenduft, Fuji.
