Club varieties including new types of both fruit and vegetable are showing strong growth in the fresh produce sector, with commercial models involving ringfenced marketing budgets and protected, licensed production reportedly faring well despite the clear economic challenges facing fruit and vegetable marketers.
That's the view of Dutch fresh produce company The Greenery, which says it has made good progress with a number of exclusively marketed fruit varieties, including branded apples Rubens, Junami and Wellant, over the past year.
'The Sweet Sensation pear has been successfully incorporated into the product range of major retailers,' the company said in its annual report, published mid-April. 'This relatively young pear variety will be available in greater volumes in 2012.'
Elsewhere, The Greenery is working on a new raspberry variety called Brilliance, grown mainly in the Benelux and said to offer excellent taste and long shelf-life, while another pear, the golden-skinned Dazzling Gold, was unveiled by the company last year and will be available in small volumes during 2012.
Significantly, a number of highly promising vegetable club varieties are starting to appear in the market too.
In 2011, The Greenery entered into an exclusive partnership with seed developer Syngenta to produce and market Angello Sweet & Seedless peppers and Romanella plum tomatoes (marketed as Red Egg) in north-west Europe, both of which are making their market debut this year.
The Dutch group has also introduced four new blue plum varieties under the trademarked brand name Lazoet, offering what it describes as uninterrupted supply with consistent shape, colour, taste and shelf-life during a ten-week period.
'The market for club varieties grew considerably in 2011,' the company commented. 'Nearly 8,000 tonnes of the three Rubens, Junami and Wellant varieties were offered in 2011, together with almost 1,000 tonnes of Sweet Sensation pears.'
New international partnerships secured by The Greenery in France, South Africa and Argentina should mean that the company is able to supply Sweet Sensation and Dazzling Gold pears year round, responding in particular to increased demand for local produce in France.
The Greenery sells fresh apples and pears to major supermarket chains in Europe and overseas, the most important markets being the Netherlands, Germany, the UK, Scandinavia, France and Russia.
