Chiquita Italia, the Italian subsidiary of Chiquita Brands International, has embarked on a tour of the country's wholesale markets as it bids to raise awareness of its year-round kiwifruit offer among retail buyers.
Over the coming fortnight, the company is set to visit several wholesale centres across the Italian peninsula – incuding Turin, Rome, Bari, Fondi, Catania and Pagani – and will set up special promotional stands where company representatives will provide information as well as the chance to taste Chiquita-branded kiwifruit.
Franco Piccolo, the group's sales manager for central and southern Italy, said the objective of the promotional tour was to raise awareness of a product that, despite Chiquita's obvious focus on tropical fruits such as bananas and pineapples, is regarded as an increasingly important part of its fresh produce offer.
'Kiwifruit is one of the products we are focusing on,' he explained. 'These activities are aimed at letting retailers know about the exceptional quality of our blue-labelled kiwifruit.'
Given the time of year, however, the fruit used in this month's promotional campaign will not be grown in Italy but in Chile.
