Spanish consumers will be the target of a new blueberry marketing campaign by Chilean fruit exporter association Asoex and Spain’s Freshuelva aimed at promoting fruit from both sources and raising consumption levels in Spain.
The associations formally signed a collaborative agreement at the Fruit Attraction 2017 trade exhibition in Madrid last week, where they announced their intention to both share information and undertake reciprocal visits during the campaign.
The generic promotion will cover the key export seasons for both countries, namely November to April and May to August. Asoex said the campaign could pave the way for future joint promotions in other European countries.
Despite being Europe’s biggest blueberry producer and having one of the continent’s highest per capita levels of fruit and vegetable consumption, Spain lags well behind northern European countries in terms of blueberry consumption.
With production volumes growing strongly year-on-year, Freshuelva has identified the development of the domestic market as one of its priorities for the coming year. Chile too, is looking to increase its penetration in key European markets in response to increasing competition from other Southern Hemisphere suppliers.
Charif Christian Carvajal, Asoex’s marketing director for Europe and Asia, said the campaign would take advantage of the “completely complementary”blueberry seasons in Chile and Spain and would feature a shared concept, with the two countries working closely with grocery retailers on the form the promotions would take.
“Over recent seasons, our industry has been active in the Spanish market promoting our fresh fruit exports with different retailers and in new distribution channels like Madrid airport,” he said.
“But this agreement is a significant step forward in terms of promotions, especially as regards the b2b sector, which we have not actively promoted to before. This is going to be a very good platform for promoting our blueberries in Spain.”
Andrés Armstrong, executive director of the Chilean Blueberry Committee, said the new campaign marked “an important step” towards promoting fresh blueberries from Chile and Spain all across Europe.
Alberto Garrocho, president of Freshuelva, said: “Freshuelva is proud to sign this agreement with Chile. As an association, we have been working hard to strengthen our promotion of blueberries in Spain, and the incorporation of Chile will enable us to create an even more impactful campaign in collaboration with retailers across Spain.”
