With offices in South Africa, UK, the Netherlands and France, international subtropical produce specialist Halls is well placed to offer an overview on the products making a serious impact on the global stage. Fortunately for Halls, one of its areas of expertise is the avocado market, which enjoyed a serious boom in 2015.
“The demand for avocado has been staggering in 2015 and shows no signs of slowing down,” Paul Devlin, European managing director for Halls, tells Eurofruit. “It is not just in the US, but also the global markets are really waking up to this incredibly healthy and delicious fruit and Halls fully expects the demand to go from strength to strength, especially for ripened fruits.”
Halls has actually been involved with ripe-and-ready processing for many years, but more recently the expansion of its international warehouses and ripening facilities at Rungis, Marseille and Rotterdam has consolidated the group’s position as one of the key specialist suppliers of subtropical produce to the wholesale and retail trades, and positions the company well to meet rising demand.
A vertically integrated business with a global reach, Halls specialises in growing, sourcing, packing, ripening, distribution and marketing of quality produce, and the group will once again be discussing its expanded range in Berlin – particularly its rebranding exercise in 2014 which brought its global operations under one brand, Halls, with the redesign of packaging now complete. This core range features Halls avocados, mangoes, lychees, citrus and Ripe, supplemented by a sub-range of exotics, berries and pomegranates.
“Hall’s supply of the Ripe range of fruit is sourced from our own farms as well as from select grower partners around the world to ensure a year-round supply of quality produce,” explains Devlin. “Halls achieves this by sourcing not just from South Africa but also from Kenya, Tanzania, Morocco, Mexico, Spain, Israel, Peru, Chile, Colombia and Swaziland, where the company has built strong, lasting relations with growers.” The Ripe range is presented in a variety of retail-ready formats, headlined by an attractive carton for on-shelf impact, and encompasses avocados and mangoes, with new additions to the format on the way, Halls says. Each fruit is individually branded, communicating directly to the consumer that it is ready to eat.
While the group predominantly supplies the European market, it is receiving greater interest from the Middle East, Far East and northern Africa than ever before – and Halls is excited to see how these markets develop over the next few years.
“Our commercial team have very close connections with our customers, and direct sales and promotion continues throughout the year,” notes Devlin. “This activity is supported by an advertising campaign focusing on the breadth of our operations, and the tree-to-shelf service that we offer, as well as attendance at key trade events such as Fruit Logistica.”
