Belgium's largest vegetable auction BelOrta has confirmed its latest merger, this time with Veiling Borgloon, coming just over a year since the fusion between Mechelse Veilingen and Coöbra that formed BelOrta.
According to BelOrta's commercial manager, Jo Lambrecht, a massive 95 per cent of the two auctions' producers voted in favour of the merger, which therefore came into effect on 1 January.
The combined auction boasts a turnover of nearly €370m and controls 43 per cent of the Belgian produce market, 56 per cent for vegetables and 22 per cent for fruit.
The deal boosts BelOrta's grower numbers from 1,150 to 1,700, located all over Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, with the new Borgloon producers concentrated in the provinces of Limburg and Liège.
'The merger gives BelOrta a 20-25 per cent share of the Belgian strawberry market, 35 per cent of the pear market and 25 per cent of the apple market,' revealed Lambrecht. 'It makes us the leader in soft fruit in Belgium, with 60 per cent of the market.'
President Leo Baestaens will reportedly continue as chairman of the board, while three directors take charge of the auction's management, namely Jos Craemers, Chris De Pooter and Philippe Fontaine.
One of the merger's main advantages, as laid out by De Pooter, is that it will turn BelOrta into a one-stop shop for its customers, enabling the auction to offer a complete range of fruit and vegetables and making the auction more attractive to the largest supermarket chains, while also improving its negotiating position.
It will equally strengthen the company's repertoire of brands, adding Eburon, the exclusive fruit brand of Veiling Borgloon, to its existing vegetable brands, Flandria, BelOrta, Mechlin, Brava, Summit and Bel'Oblita.
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