Five years ago, Fortuna Frutos Continental, together with Stephane Rion, started with the separate company Fortuna Frutos International to expand the package for its retail and foodservice customers with the import of vegetables from the Mediterranean area, in addition to the import of Canary Islands tomatoes and cucumbers. The international branch has experienced strong growth in recent years and with the arrival of Bert Nobel and Jacob Visser,.the assortment will also be expanded with fruit from 1 November.
"The share of Canary Islands vegetables has remained stable with us in recent years. We will always remain a specialist in these, but our growth is really found in the rest of the package. With that we have made a major step with vegetables in recent years and with the expansion to fruit we are ready for the next step. The new colleagues have an extensive network of customers and suppliers in the fruit sector and, combined with the position that Fortuna Frutos Continental has acquired in the market, it offers a great future perspective," according to Stephane.
The Dutch retailers are currently making the switch to the import vegetables. "The productions in Spain look good, even though the weather conditions last week caused some problems. We also expect a nice package of cherry and snack tomatoes from Senegal. From the end of November we also will have cherry tomatoes from Tunisia available. All in all, we expect the season to be favorable, but we are only at the beginning and anything may happen in terms of weather conditions," Stephane stresses.
Marco Slobbe and Stephane Rion
His colleague Marco Slobbe also speaks of excellent cultivation conditions this summer for the Canarian cultivation. "Everything is looking good, but we have no guarantees, because it can just be different after a storm. As we now estimate, the volume of tomatoes and cucumbers is both for us and in totality at the same level as last year. The indication is that less round tomatoes are available in Spain and Morocco, so that may be an advantage for the Canarian production."
Fortuna Frutos has this year expanded the acreage of plum tomatoes in the Canary Islands to 8 hectares. "Last year we were able to continue with good quality plum tomatoes until the end of April, while Spain is often ready by mid-March, so that is an advantage for us", says Marco. "In Canarian cucumbers we are a relatively small player. Unlike in the past, since last year we have been working with two cultivations instead of one short cultivation, which means that we can extend the season somewhat with a slightly lower volume in the peak of the season."
For more information:
Marco Slobbe
Fortuna Frutos
Tel: +31(0)180751420
marco@fortuna-frutos.com
www.fortuna-frutos.com