Five of the Benelux's leading fresh produce organisations, Dutch cooperatives Fruitmasters and The Greenery, Dutch auctions Veiling Zuid-Limburg and Veiling Zaltbommel, and Belgian auction Veiling Haspengouw, have announced plans to centralise their sales of the trademarked apple varieties Rubens, Junami and Wellant.
In a joint statement, the companies said the strategy of marketing protected, so-called club varieties was 'here to stay' and sales of licensed, branded apples and pears would continue to grow over the coming years.
'`The companies` see the concept of marketing innovative varieties as an important tool in coping with strong international competition within the topfruit sector,' the statement said.
The five organisations said they expected to increase the volume of Rubens, Junami and Wellant sold during the next few years, a trend which they said would be better pursued by bundling sales of the varieties together.
Rubens, Junami and Wellant were all developed by the grower-owned research and development group Inova Fruit, which is jointly owned by Fruitmasters (29 per cent), The Greenery (26 per cent), Veiling Haspengouw (18), the Dutch Fruit Producers' Organisation (NFO, 16 per cent), Veiling Zuid-Limburg (7 per cent) and Veiling Zaltbommel (4 per cent).
The collaboration will be primarily a joint marketing venture overseen by Inova Fruit, although precise details on the kind of sales structure to be employed have not yet been decided.
The companies will now investigate a number of possible strategies designed to consolidate sales of the club varieties, a study which is expected to be completed 'within a few months'.
