Kiwi

Salvi Uniacoa, together with Zespri, has decided to develop a new variety of yellow kiwifruit called G3, which has the advantage of being more resistant to the fearsome PSA bacteria than its predecessors and will be planted in quarantine-free areas of Italy such as the Latina area. Marco Salvi, the managing director of Salvi and chairman of Fruitimpresse, believes that the worst is over: “In Italy, it seems to us that the kiwifruit bacterium has already gone through its most virulent stage and as growers, we are now more confident that we are learning to control it. Yellow varieties continue to be very popular both in Russia and Europe and in Asia and we think that G3 has good prospects there”. The Fruitimpresse chairman considers that the season will also be very positive for Italian green kiwifruit growers, as this year’s season kicked off with very high quality fruit (higher Brix and dry matter) and at earlier dates. Italy entered the international markets at the beginning of November 2013, as the New Zealand season ended early (by nearly a month) and Chile’s freezes left it very short of fruit (down by 60%).  This has been very positive for the profitability of the 400,000-tonne Italian kiwifruit crop this season, only slightly lower than last year’s (down by 5%), especially in the North, in Piedmont, Verona and Romagna.  Other European suppliers have also been short of fruit: Greece is down by 5% and France by 10%. Given this situation, “Italian kiwifruit will be the main supply during the European spring, as they can offer both quality and quantity over a longer timescale”, Marco Salvi stated.

The latest campaign for Eurobanan was highly positive, confirms Director General Joaquin Rey: “We have a product that is gaining wide acceptance by consumers and having a brand that makes reference to its source helps position it.” In 2013 they traded around 10,000 tons of Kiwiberico, of which some 400 t was organic, and they expect to repeat similar volumes in the 2013/2014 campaign. 
Switzerland, Holland, Ireland and the UK are still the main markets. Most progress and growth has taken place in the “ready-to-eat” or “5th range” sector, since the end client appreciates it when products with great flavour reach them at their optimum stage of ripeness.  
In the Northern Hemisphere, France used to be the only reference for flavour and sweetness, and now, thanks to their star kiwi product, Kiwiberico, they have managed to increase this supply and even improve on it. With Kiwiberico they have made a strong commitment to the most innovating market strategies to achieve their final objective, i.e. to bring the customer a healthy and beneficial product with an unmistakable flavour, while encouraging a heart-healthy life by eating fruit and vegetables, along with regular physical exercise. 
The Eurobanan Director reveals: “The secrets of our kiwi’s success are very basic: we intervene technically in production, conservation and marketing. The fruit is harvested at 7 to 10 degrees Brix (sweetness) and 16 to 18% dry matter (flavour), an improvement of more than two points over kiwis harvested in the same hemisphere in other countries, achieving a product with great flavour, which is what the customer is looking for.” 
Their distribution strategy, as Joaquin Rey explains, is also quite simple: “We aim to reach the highest possible number of consumers. We do it through the means at our disposal to make the end consumer aware of the brand, appreciate the taste and, most of all, repeat their purchase. We have even carried out crossover promotions, for example one we did with Coplaca, where if you buy 1 kg of bananas, you also get a free mesh bag of 4 kiwis. Our brand has also featured in several promotional activities alongside the 5-a-day Association, which specialises in this type of action.” 
KIWIBERICO has a section called KIWIBERICO BIO given over to organic produce. This produce meets all the necessary guidelines to be considered organic, including the absence of chemical fertilisers or pesticides, improved watering treatment for the trees or the purity of the seeds, which have not been genetically treated. All of this gives rise to a kiwi fruit that is 100% natural, with an unmistakable flavour that is also environmentally responsible. 

Gullino Import Export S.r.l. is an Italian company that only exports Italian-grown products. Its core business is kiwifruit, with seasonal export volumes of around 30,000 tonnes (35,000 in 2012/13, 32,600 in 2011/12 and 30,000 tonnes the season before that). Its next-biggest export products are peaches and nectarines (5000 tonnes in 2012/13, 5200 tonnes the year before and 6000 in 2010/11). The third product by volume is plums, at 2000 tonnes last season and 1500 tonnes in each of the previous two.  “We are continuing to run trials, both in the field and in the packhouse, to develop our know-how on the yellow kiwifruit variety Soreli in order to improve the product’s quality and shelf life during both refrigerated storage and transport (particularly by sea)”, commented the commercial manager, Giovanni Gullino. 
Gullino Import Export S.r.l exported around 41,000 tonnes, almost all grown in Piedmont, during the 2013 season. This year the firm expects to export 28,000 tonnes of kiwifruit. Crop volumes have been hit by a bacterial disease in Piedmont and above all by lower yields in the Venetian crop caused by root suffocation. The United States and Canada are showing good resilience this season, although the profitability of these markets has been affected by particularly unfavourable exchange rates. In the 2013/14 season, North America is taking about 18% of the firm’s exports. North Africa and the Middle East account for around 8% of turnover, followed by Eastern Europe at 5-6%. The main export market is still western Europe, however, which takes 40% of the firm’s shipments. “Most of our business has focused on closer destinations, at the start of the season at least, though we have kept up the programs we have underway with loyal clients that involve long journey times”, said Giovanni Gullino. Chile’s product shortage for the coming season hopefully promises a very active European market during the second part of the year.
A suitable grader has been acquired for in-line packing of delicate fruit in order to improve the quality of some presentations. Both the packhouse and storage company and most of the growers are certified to international standards such as BRC, IFS, TN, Globalgap and Grasp.
Gullino Import Export S.r.l. is very conscious of sustainability and has been working for some years now on a project called Save the Planet that aims to lead, in a few years’ time, to using only electricity generated from renewable sources throughout the production process. Currently the company can boast that 40% of the electricity it uses comes from renewable sources.