For the first time ever, a number of leading Italian fresh produce companies have united behind a project to promote the value of the country's seasonal fruit and vegetables to consumers.
Ortofrutta d'Italia, a joint venture coordinated by marketing and research agency CSO, brings together a total of 16 major players from Italy's fresh produce trade, all of whom have decided to pool their resources in order to communicate to the general public about the products they supply.
The companies involved are: AgriBolgona, Apofruit, APO Scaligera, Asipo, Associazione Italiana Fungicoltori, Granfrutta Zani, Cico, Minguzzi, OP Coz, OP Nord Est, OPO Veneto, Pempa Corer, AFE, APO Conerpo, Consorzio Casalasco del Pomodoro and CIO.
Between them, they represent a significant swathe of Italy's production of high-quality products, including kiwifruit, stonefruit, soft fruit, melons, tomatoes, citrus and radicchio.
Mario Tamanti, managing director of CSO, said: 'I believe the biggest value in our initiative lies in the fact that it joins the forces of several Italian companies, representing more than 12,000 individual producers, in order to carry out marketing communications aimed primarily at the consumer,' he commented.
'I still believe that now, more than ever, fruit and vegetables need to be repositioned in the minds of consumers who should no longer consider them as a replaceable or banal product but instead should appreciate them more and more.'
The ultimate aim, according to the project's founders, will be to reverse a worrying recent trend of falling consumption in Italy's domestic and European markets.
Alarming downturn
Paolo Bruni, president of CSO, commented: 'The alarming fact is that there has been a dramatic fall in consumption in Italy during the past few years, with 500,000 tonnes less fruit and 700,000 tonnes less vegetables now bought than in 2000.
'The downturn is all the more alarming when you consider that family spending on fresh fruit and vegetables today represents 3 per cent of the total spend, not just food,' he added.
According to figures published by GfK, a market research company, the average Italian family is 2.4 people and spends an average of only €1.50 per day on fruit and vegetables.
'I would urge Italians to go back to appreciating the extraordinary value of our products and double their family's daily purchases and, in doing so, guarantee health and wellbeing.'
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