Two major Italian fresh produce suppliers, APO Veneto Friulana and OP Kiwisole, have agreed to form an association of producer organisations aligned to Spreafico, one of the country's leading exporters, in order to strengthen their presence on the international market.
The new venture is expected to involve the setting up of a new company to market the groups' products, which include Lazio-based Kiwisole's kiwifruit production as well as apples, pears, kiwifruit, stonefruit, cherries, radicchio and asparagus grown by APO Veneto Friulana's members.
Lino Rossi, president of AOP Veneto Friulana, joined OP Kiwisole's president Simone Spreafico in welcoming the move and underlining the importance of clubbing together to have a bigger impact globally.
'We expect to achieve greater economies of scale which will serve to improve the margins paid to our grower members,' they explained in a joint statement.
Raffaele Spreafico, meanwhile, suggested the deal was a good one because of the 'importance of integrating the producer organisations' production with Spreafico's own distribution capacity'.
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