Freshness from Europe, the Project financed by the European Union, the Italian Government and CSO Italy, is now focusing its promotional activity on the United Arab Emirates.
Starting just before the summer, the campaign is targeting its summer fruit offering at the country.
EU summer fruit products are supplied exclusively via air delivery from Italy to Dubai, guaranteeing freshness and storability of all products.
According to Eurostat data, fruit and vegetable exports from Italy to the United Arab Emirates has seen a steady increase in the past three years, not only in winter fruit (kiwifruit, apples, pears), but also summer and autumn fruit, such as plums, apricots, cherries and grapes.
Italian exports reached and exceeded 12,000 tonnes in 2015, against 9,700 tonnes in 2012, and there is still a great increase potential, according to the campaign organisers.
Among the various activities set by the Freshness from Europe project for the United Arab Emirates, there are in-store initiatives such as the distribution of information leaflets and presentations of fruit and vegetable produce highlighting their country of origin, and their historical and cultural background.
“The Freshness project,' says Stefano Soli from Alegra, 'has everything it needs to be successful and appealing in the Emirates, where people are becoming ever-more interested in high quality fruit and vegetables, and pay great attention to health topics and the nutritional aspects that the initiative wants to convey.'
Renzo Balestri, overseas manager for Apofruit, adds: “The Emirates is a constantly growing market and the summer campaign has received a positive response so far. It showed great interest in all Italian early summer fruit – peaches, nectarines, cherries, apricots, and also in ready-to-eat produce”.
