BayWa, the German agricultural company poised to secure a NZ$216m (€125m) takeover of New Zealand fresh produce exporter Turners & Growers (T&G) in early 2012, will seek to capitalise on new opportunities to develop year-round supply programmes for key products like apples, pears and kiwifruit into Europe if, as expected, the deal goes through.
Speaking exclusively to Eurofruit as part of the magazine's annual Trade New Zealand supplement, BayWa chief executive Klaus Josef Lutz revealed that, while much had already been made of the company's interest in buying T&G in order to position itself for new sales growth in Asia, the prospect of creating better value for customers in Europe had also been high on the agenda when deciding to purchase the exporter.
Taking over T&G could certainly also have a positive impact on BayWa's European business, Lutz commented.
'Europe will remain a very important market for us,' he told Eurofruit. 'We have a lot of customers in Europe including Rewe, Aldi and Edeka, and they’re demanding more and more from us to supply goods year-round.'
He added: 'With this deal we will be able to provide products, especially apples, for 365 days a year.'
Lutz also said he saw potential for closer collaboration with partners in Europe, in particular with packing operations carried out by auction house Veiling Haspengouw in Sint-Truiden and the European headquarters of Turners & Growers in Belgium.
Back in 2002, Veiling Haspengouw teamed up with Dutch marketer Royal Fruitmasters and BayWa's fruit production division, Württembergische Obstgenossenschaft Raiffeisen, to form a cooperative venture called European Fruit Cooperation (EFC).
The proximity of EFC's and T&G's respective offices on the Tongersesteenweg in Sint Truiden – it takes less than a minute to walk from the latter's continental European sales office at number 135 to the headquarters of the former, which is at number 152 – should make close communication more straightforward.
The full interview with Klaus Josef Lutz appears in the January 2012 issue of Eurofruit.
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