Italy’s largest apple cooperative organisation VOG has released a optimistic and confident analysis of the prospects for its 2010/11 export campaign, with the group’s 18 cooperative members expecting to benefit from a high quality crop and buoyant market.
In a statement released to coincide with Italian apple trade fair Interpoma 2010, which is taking place from 4-November in Bolzano, South Tyrol, the association’s director, Gerhard Dichgans, said the campaign was “going well”, thanks to a “much healthier” market.
“Supply and demand are much better balanced, thanks to the drop in imports from competitor nations, and prices are stable, while exports are highly satisfactory,” he said.
“The quality of our apples has once again turned out to be superb, despite the fact that a large proportion are medium-to-small in size, on account of high temperatures and water scarcity in June and July.”
VOG is among the exhibitors at this year’s seventh edition of Interpoma, the biennial trade exhibition for the apple sector which gathers together numerous sector experts and professionals together with the principal apple growing organisations in the pavilions of the Bolzano Trade Fair Centre.
As the Association of South Tyrolean Fruit Growers’ Co-operatives, VOG is among the most important exhibitors: representing over 10,800ha of apple orchards, 18 producer cooperatives and 5,600 family-run member companies.
The organisation is highlighting the brands it uses to market its apples, including Marlene and Suedtiroler Apfel, as well as brands that identify apples protected by varietal clubs and grown by VOG’s members, such as Kanzi, Pink Lady, Modì and Rubens.
