Europe’s largest co-operative auction, BelOrta, has enjoyed success with its first promotional campaign in Asia. The Belgian-based group held tastings for Belgian Endives in retailers across Japan earlier this year.
“It was for a short period of time but the results were very positive,” said BelOrta’s Sofie Lambrecht “We have been selling Belgian Endives into Asia for a number of seasons and saw an opportunity to promote the product with one of our export partners.”
Endives are part of BelOrta’s growing export portfolio in the Asian region. Leaks, brussels sprouts, celery, cabbage and various other assortments of leaf vegetables are also proving popular with Asian consumers. BelOrta’s commercial director, Jo Lambrecht, says there are also high hopes for the new Lemoncherry tomato variety, which was the runner-up in the Innovation Award at Fruit Logistica earlier this year.
'“We have a steady stream of visitors from Asia coming here to Belgium to see what we do and to discuss business possibilities,” Jo Lambrecht explained. “At the moment we’ve got some good contacts in countries like South Korea, Japan and India and we’re trying to break open the market even more.'
