“I look at the glass as being half full, not half empty,” says Dov Warmen, managing director of Mehadrin Tnuport Export UK.
Like many in the industry, he’s finding his company under constant pressure from the combination of increasing costs and retail price competition within the UK.
“We are suffering from rising costs in all areas, and competition between the supermarkets in the UK is tough,” he says.
But rather than sit back and complain, he takes a more optimistic outlook and gets on with reducing costs and making his company as lean as possible.
“We’re trying very hard to make ourselves as efficient as possible, every effort is going into improving our systems and cutting costs. We’re always looking at the details, the small things that can make a big difference.
“People don’t like to talk about it, but we have to work hard to stay efficient. If you want to be in this market, you’ve got to cope with the situation and get on with it. It’s a good market, but it’s very tough.”
MTEX is Israel’s leading citrus producer and has exclusive rights to the Jaffa brand in the UK market, also supplying Jaffa branded fruit in the non-Israeli season.
The company now works with growers in South Africa, South America, Spain and Turkey, keeping the Jaffa brand on shelf throughout the year.
A key development for the company this year, says Warmen, is the fact it has now been audited for Tesco’s Nature’s Choice (TNC).
“We’re one of the first Israeli companies to be accredited with TNC and for us its very important. We’ve done a lot of work on our specifications and technical standards and we’re very pleased to have passed the audit.”
Meanwhile, Warmen says MTEX has also made some serious in-roads in the UK market on grapefruit, mainly due to the hurricane impact on Florida’s produce.
He said his company has managed to double volumes to the UK in recent months, but more importantly it has managed to secure additional orders for the future as well.
“Our customers in the UK, which have in the past not worked with us, have been able to see the high quality of our produce, and it gave consumers the chance to try it. As a result we’re receiving programmes again for next season, especially on the red grapefruit.”
He said MTEX has responded to that increased demand by making the UK a priority and resisting the lure of higher prices elsewhere. “We’ve given the UK market preference, even though in part of the season, the prices on the continent were better. We wanted to build for the future.”
Warmen says there has been significant investment in the easy-peeling variety Or. “There is a great deal of new plantations in Israel, particularly of Or, and we believe that this premium variety is the future for citrus.
“It has a lot going for it, its appearance is excellent, it is seedless, tastes wonderful and its very easy to peel.”
MTEX is also working very closely with the Volcani Institute in Israel, which is at work on a wide range of new citrus varieties.
Warmen says: “It’s a government group, but we work very closely with them, sharing information and ideas.
“I visited recently and they’re doing a number of trials on all manner of citrus, none of which is commercial yet and there’s no set date on any of it, but the stuff they’re doing is pointing the way towards the future for our industry.
“Everyone in the sector is aiming to get new varieties into the market, we all want to create a point of difference from our competitors.”
Warmen says the recent ruling on Jaffa, which saw the Israeli patent office remove the country’s citrus sector’s exclusive rights to the brand name, has no effect on his business. “It means we can’t say that Jaffa fruit is from an Israeli source as we’re doing it from other sources as well, but that’s not something we’ve ever done anyway, so it doesn’t affect us at all really.”
Warmen thinks the citrus category is in extremely good shape: “I had some growers over from Israel recently, and they were amazed to see how much space the category has in the supermarket.
“Demand has definitely gone up, partly in recognition that the product is healthy, but also because it’s tasty as well. It’s not enough for things just to be healthy.
“There’s big demand in the UK and you can see that just by watching customers in the supermarket. Almost every customer picks up a net of citrus fruit.”
He says demand for more traditional products is also on the rise, and particularly grapefruit.
“Recently, perhaps two or three years back, the grapefruit was being considered a product for the older generation, those who had time to squeeze it in the morning. That was the perception,” he says.
“However, now we’re seeing much more purchasing from younger people, younger families. This is due to the fact they are recognising that the varieties have improved and the taste is proving more attractive to the consumers.”
Overall, the citrus sector in the UK is looking good, and Warmen is confident his company will continue to play a major role in meeting consumers needs.
“In the last three years, we have seen our volumes into the UK growing by around 20 to 30 per cent, depending on varieties, and that’s something we’re looking to maintain.”
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