Recently formed Spanish fresh produce consortium Unica Group has officially launched a new brand, also called Unica, which will appear alongside Andalusian horticultural brand Lola for the first time in supermarkets across Europe.
An initial shipment of cartons carrying both brands was carried out last week and Unica expects to deliver more than 15m branded cartons to 30 countries, including Germany, the UK, the Nordic countries, France and Italy, during the course of the campaign.
The event marks the first time that both the Unica brand and the Lola Andalusian Fresh Produce brand, which was created by Andalusian interprofessional association Hortyfruta, will appear commercially, Unica managing director Enrique de los Ríos told a press conference at the Fruit Attraction trade fair in Madrid, Spain.
“It has taken us a lot of work to reach this point and a lot of determination on the part of the Andalusian fresh produce sector,” he said.
“On behalf of Unica, we believe that the union of these two initiatives is the right response to improve the position of the industry.”
Mr de los Ríos said that the use of the Lola brand would enable Unica’s products to be identified as Andalusian and “recognised for their quality and methods of production that respect both workers and the environment”.
Hortyfruta managing director María José Pardo added: “The objective of the Lola brand is to improve the image of Andalusia’s fresh produce sector and enable consumers to recognise our products. Lola is a name that is identified in many countries as being not just Spanish, but also Andalusian.”
Unica Group, which is based in Almería, Spain, was formed in late 2008 by five leading Spanish fruit and vegetable cooperatives – Casur, Cohorsan, Cabasc, Ferva and Agrieco – although it only began operating September this year.
The group, which has a turnover estimated at €160m, produces more than 150,000 tonnes of tomates, melons, peppers, aubergines and other products every year over 1,500ha.
