From A for avocado to Z for zucchini flower: our colorful produce portfolio from all over the world not only offers a great variety of fruits and vegetables, but also includes globally recognized brands. With our insistence on safety and the highest quality, it is our everyday aspiration to enrich the portfolio of fresh produce offered to consumers around the world.
Since kicking-off our internationalization strategy in 2012 we have significantly expanded our position in the global fruit trade. Today, we are one of the leading suppliers of pome fruit from the northern and southern hemisphere. This is why we are able to provide our customers with an attractive portfolio of pome fruit from integrated as well as organic production year-round.
Whether tart-sweet, crunchy green or juicy red: our range offers the right apple for every taste. From traditional, well-known varieties to premium branded products: our range leaves nothing to be desired.
Undoubtably, berries have quickly developed into a winner in fresh fruit in recent years. In particular, blueberry demand continues to grow at exponential rates.
Through initial breeding successes and partnerships with growers, we are now able to offer premium blueberries under the Orchard Rd™ brand in Asia, Australia and New Zealand almost 365 days a year.
Due to a quick rise in supply from numerous origins in varying qualities, there is a lack of guidance for consumers. To counteract this, we made the decision to invest in berries as a strategic category to help provide our customers with better quality produce. A major milestone was the initiation of a joint berry breeding program together with Plant & Food Research in New Zealand. The program focuses on developing new varieties of blueberries and rubus (e.g., raspberries and blackberries) that are larger, tastier and consistent in quality.
At the same time, the new varieties are more resilient in terms of growing, have extended harvest windows and offer more stable yields.
Every day, we bring a fresh portfolio of more than 200 exotic fruits and vegetables from more than 50 countries to our customers. Our state-of-the-art ripening technology supported by artificial intelligence ensures ready-to-eat fruit of the highest quality with optimized shelf-life. This is especially key with exotics, where the consumer expects to be surprised and delighted again and again.
Through our commitment to innovation, our investment in the latest technology and our understanding of the category, we are able to supply the best exotics from all over the world throughout the year.
One of today’s greatest questions is how we can ensure that consumers around the world will be able to choose from a diverse range of high-quality fruits despite changing climatic conditions and dwindling resources. In order to tackle this, we believe we have to start at the beginning of the supply chain, and so we continuously invest in new plant varieties that provide added value to our business and our stakeholders.
As climate and growing conditions become more volatile, new varieties need strong resilience to high temperatures and intense sunlight, as well as lower resource requirements. To lay the foundation for future-proof production, we closely cooperate with breeders, growers and marketers to develop varieties of out standing quality.