Is it a big spicy chili pepper? When the Sweet Palermo product was launched in one of the supermarkets within Indonesia’s Ranchmarket grocery chain, customers were hesitant to take a bite at first. When they did, the sweet flavour took them by surprise. The bell pepper is not yet well known in Indonesia but – in collaboration with Rijk Zwaan – retailer Ranchmarket and producer and distributor Pluit Cold Storage are gearing up to develop the market.
Indonesian eating habits have changed over recent years. As the result of growing urbanisation and economic development, Indonesians are consuming fewer vegetables in favour of fast food and processed products. Convenience is a decisive factor. Pluit Cold Storage, a logistics service provider and owner of the high-tech horticultural company PT Cibadak Agri, is on a mission: to capitalise on the desire for convenience while putting vegetables back on the menu.
Salads
Scott Martin, General Manager of Pluit Cold Storage, comments: “Salads only take a few minutes to prepare and can help to put the fun back into eating fresh vegetables. That’s why the crops we produce include lettuce, tomatoes, basil, aubergines, courgettes and peppers, but also Sweet Palermo. It’s a premium product that is easy to cultivate and also has a very good yield.” Pluit Cold Storage produces, packages and distributes all its products under the Highland Vegetables name. Hotels and markets are important customers, but it primarily supplies to major retailers such as Ranchmarket.
Top-quality vegetables
This grocery chain, which has 13 stores in Indonesia, was immediately open to the idea of running a pilot with Sweet Palermo. “The flavour, appearance and shelf life of Sweet Palermo are all very good,” comments Ali Wijaya, Head of Merchandise at Ranchmarket. This Indonesian supermarket chain, which is the country’s only one to have HACCP 9000 certification, is focused on top-quality grocery products and especially on fresh food such as meat, fish and produce. “That’s why we like working together with Rijk Zwaan. Their products are a good fit with a retailer like Ranchmarket.”
Live demonstration by a chef
Because the pepper is an unfamiliar product for Indonesians, the three partners decided to support the launch of Sweet Palermo in late 2016 with a live in-store demonstration. Each company contributed to the demo by providing products, manpower or promotion materials. A professional chef demonstrated how peppers can be used in cooking, and the www.lovemysalad.com website was promoted to consumers as a source of recipes. The launch was a great success, as Ali Wijaya from Ranchmarket recalls: “Shoppers were astonished at the sweet flavour of Sweet Palermo. We’re very happy about the sales figures during the launch.”
Good partnership
Ranchmarket is equally enthusiastic about the collaboration with its partners Rijk Zwaan and Pluit Cold Storage. Wijaya: “For us, it’s very important to be able to depend on a regular supply from the producer. Furthermore, we particularly value the fact that, as the seed company, Rijk Zwaan supports both the grower and us right through to in-store promotion, such as with product displays, a packaging concept and a special website. We hope that Sweet Palermo will become popular in the future. We’re happy to work on future campaigns to inform consumers about this and any other new vegetables.”
