VOG annual report: results satisfactory despite the difficult season
(Terlano, 2023) The VOG Board of Directors met for the presentation of the annual report of the House of Apples in Terlano. A vote was also held during the General Meeting to elect the members of the Board, which had come to the end of its 3-year term.
Georg Kössler was unanimously re-elected to the role of Chairman and during the plenary meeting presented the results of the past sales season, which proved to be extremely challenging.
The European harvest for 2021, amounting to almost 12 million tonnes, was in line with average volumes of recent years but well above the total for the previous year. It was therefore clear from the outset that the 2021/2022 marketing season would be far from plain sailing.
“Despite the slow start to the sales campaign, the stability and efficiency of our Consortium enabled us to weather the storm”, explains Kössler. The 2021 harvest proved to be extremely good in terms of size, colour, flavour and, most of all, storage life. Thanks to its wide range of varieties and brands, and in particular thanks to its expertise in category management, the VOG Consortium was able to identify the right moments at which to market its products over the 12 months of the year.
“The consequences of the Covid 19 pandemic, together with the war in Ukraine, have also weighed heavily on the international economic order – concluded Kössler during the Meeting – The major rise in energy and logistics costs, in addition to the increase in the price of packaging materials, has had a major impact on the storage and processing costs of our apples. Nevertheless, thanks to a monumental effort across the board, we can be quite pleased with our business results at the end of the 2021/2022 season. Positive results that are crucial to the social and economic sustainability of the Consortium. Only if we manage to market our apples at a decent price can we guarantee the future of our producers.”
VOG, Home of apples
The Consortium of South Tyrolean Fruit Growers’ Co-operatives has the right apple for every month ofthe year, grown by both integrated production and organic methods.
Founded in 1945, VOG comprises 12 cooperatives with 4,600 family farm members. More than 10 thousand pairs of hands, which bring to bear values such as origin, expertise, sustainability, products and brands in the production of 500 thousand tonnes of high quality apples every year, destined for 75markets worldwide.
The assortment includes more than 30 varieties, headed by the Marlene®, Südtiroler Apfel g.g.A., PinkLady®, Kanzi®, envy™, yello®, Jazz™, Joya®, SweeTango®, RedPop®, Giga®, Cosmic Crisp® e Crimson Snow® brands.
