Sponsored Post – The fruit processing company VOG Products is the world’s largest producer of organic apple juice, concentrate and purée at one location. This year’s harvest in South Tyrol and Trentino provides outstanding conditions for premium quality and high-value products.

The Trentino-South Tyrol region on the southern side of the Alps looks back at a long tradition of fruit cultivation. With 300 sunny days per year and cool nights, the climate there is ideal. This is reflected in the taste and aroma of the fruit that VOG Products processes and refines.

2021 has proven to be an excellent year for apple quality in South Tyrol and Trentino. The weather conditions are currently optimal for the harvest. During the day, the sun shines down on the apple fields and the cool nights ensure that the colour will be intense. The Gala apples harvested this year are a brilliant red colour that is seldom seen – even the apples from areas where colouring does not easily develop are bright red.

VOG Products, the modern fruit processing company headquartered in Laives, belongs to 4 producers’ organisations from South Tyrol and Trentino and 18 cooperatives from South Tyrol with more than 10,000 members. Most of them are small family operations that care for their apple orchards with love and devotion.

Pioneer in Europe

Agriculture is acknowledged for its great importance throughout the region. After all, dealing with land and its resources respectfully is firmly embedded in the culture there. In this spirit, sustainable production is a matter of course for local fruit growers, many of whom have embraced organic cultivation. “Biosüdtirol and Bio Vinschgau have now become the largest organic producers in Europe,” explained Senior Key Account Manager Martin Bristot, who is responsible for the organic sector at VOG Products.

Organic apples now make up around 10 % of the total harvest in South Tyrol. Despite frosty nights in the spring, the official harvest forecasts indicate that the organic proportion in South Tyrol will remain constant in 2021. As compared to the previous year, in Trentino organically cultivated apples should record growth of around 20 %.

The figures show a trend: in three years, the quantity of organic raw goods delivered to VOG Products has more than trebled. As a result, the fruit processing company from Laives is now the world’s largest producer of organic apple juice, concentrate and purée at one location. VOG Products continues to source its organic goods exclusively from its members’ members: the around 10,000 farmers from the growing area.

Bioland: a guarantee of quality

Top conditions at the location, tightly meshed quality control and traceability back to the farmers are particularly valuable in the organic sector. But VOG Products goes a step farther. “VOG Products is Bioland-certified or rather, a portion of our suppliers provide Bioland goods,” said Bristot. The seal has more stringent guidelines than those laid down in the EU regulation on organic production. “In Germany, the most important market for apple juice, the organic niche is growing: the quantities demanded are increasing significantly,” Bristot added.

“In combination with South Tyrol as the region of origin, these quality aspects are important for many purchasers and during the COVID-19 pandemic, they have become even more important.”

Renowned companies in food retailing have also recognised the potential and are jumping onto the organic bandwagon. “They aim to convert a certain percentage of their assortment from conventional to organic. We are primarily observing the trend in Germany, but France, Austria and the Scandinavian countries are all following suit,” explained Bristot. “That is giving the saleable quantities of direct apple juice an enormous boost.” But in the affluent exotic markets in Asia and the US as well, consumers are very aware of organic quality.

Sponsored Post

The ideal climatic and agronomic conditions in the Trentino-South Tyrol region provide VOG Products with a clear mission in addition to high-quality raw goods in secure quantities: what began on the region’s fields continues in the fruit processing facilities.

Trentino-South Tyrol looks back on a long fruit-growing tradition. After all, the climate with 300 sunny days per year and cool nights is ideal – growing conditions that are naturally reflected in taste and aroma. It’s no coincidence that VOG Products was established there in 1967. The great importance of agriculture is generally acknowledged throughout the region. Dealing with land and its resources respectfully and sustainably has always been firmly embedded in the culture there. There are good reasons why Trentino-South Tyrol regularly ranks at the top in comparisons of quality of life across Italy.

The region’s apple farmers can rely on a unique centre of excellence: a network comprising cooperatives, consulting structures, and renowned research institutes such as the Laimburg Research Centre, the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, and NOI Science and Technology Park supports them with advice and assistance.

Along the entire production chain – from qualified staff to state-of-the-art infrastructure –, nothing is left to chance. Each production step is structured and monitored. “That’s what is so special about this region,” affirmed Christoph Tappeiner, CEO of VOG Products. “It turns origin into a guarantee of security. We benefit from an ideal agronomic setting in which decades of experience are consciously combined with innovative approaches.”

This interplay ensures that technical aids and know-how are always at the cutting edge. For example, three-quarters of the areas under cultivation have frost-protection sprinklers, ensuring quantity security even in the event of freak weather.

The varietal strategies are another key indicator for innovation and advanced development. “On the one hand, if we think of Golden, the varieties are an expression of tradition. On the other hand, development takes place continuously in order to lift the region to a new level,” explained Tappeiner. New varieties such as Envy, Cosmic Crisp, Crimson Snow, Sweetango, Giga, Red Pop, Ambrosia, Enjoy, Morgana, Bonita and Tessa represent the new level. “This range of different varieties covers the entire spectrum from light to dark and sweet to sour.”

A total of 28,000 hectares of apple plantations make the Trentino-South Tyrol region Europe’s largest contiguous growing region. VOG Products processes and refines every fifth apple from the region.

“We know where the apples come from before they land in our safe, competent hands. Controlled, good raw goods are the indispensable basis for a safe, high-quality product,” said the director of VOG Products.

Today, the fruit processing company in the heart of the Dolomite Alps belongs to 18 cooperatives in South Tyrol and Trentino and 4 producer organisations with more than 13,000 members, most of which are small family operations that care for their apple orchards with love and devotion. A level of care that is decisive, particularly in the growing organic sector. By the way, South Tyrol is the only province outside of Germany with an active Bioland regional association.

“We put all our effort into continuing and supporting what began on the fields – thanks to processing that is monitored 24/7, innovative technologies, state-of-the-art methods of analysis and plants, and qualified staff,” said Tappeiner to summarise VOG Products’ mission.

Sponsored Post

VOG Products processed over 30,000 tonnes of organic fruit in the 2019/20 business year. Many factors, starting from the South Tyrol – Südtirol location and the partnership with Bioland, underlie the growing demand.

From 2017 to the present the organic percentage of the output of VOG Products, the modern, innovative fruit processing business in Italy’s South Tyrol – Südtirol region, has tripled. But why is interest in certified organic foods growing so strongly? The answer is apparently simple but actually implies a great deal more: because organic is added value.

“Customers identify it with a healthier product: people want to make a choice that’s good for them, for the environment they live in, and also for nature. This is certainly a trend, but for an ever-increasing number of people it’s more than that: a lifestyle and a new experience”, we are told by Martin Bristot, who works in the organic sector as Senior Key Account Manager at VOG Products.

An Organic brand also represents trust: VOG Products only purchases organic fruit from its members in Trentino-South Tyrol, mainly Bio Val Venosta and Bio Südtirol. “Through traceability back to the farmer, we are able to give the market a strong, clear signal: we know who grows our organic products with hard work and passion,” Mr Bristot confirms. “Since the European market’s two biggest organic producers are members in our owner cooperative, we enjoy preferential access to raw material. Basically, we are able to access supplies all year round.”

Through the partnership with Bioland, VOG Products takes another major step forward: almost all its organic raw materials also meet the Bioland standards. “The whole chain, starting from the farmers through the cooperative to VOG Products itself as processing company, is certified from A to Z, so the final product is certified, too”, Mr Bristot explains.

This label’s private law requirements are much more stringent than the criteria enforced by law on the EU’s biological label: farmers implement the seven Bioland principles, which also embrace the circular economy, biodiversity, and the maintenance of soil fertility to combat global warming. A Bioland farm has to operate in accordance with 100% environment-friendly standards, and the use of fertilisers and pesticides is also more strictly controlled. When it comes to processing, fewer than half the food additives approved under EU organic production regulations also meet the Bioland conformity criteria. In general, with Bioland, additives and auxiliary materials, processing methods, packaging, labelling and the quality guarantee are specifically tailored to each group of products, and tight restrictions are often imposed.

Over time, major food retailers have recognised its potentials and have brought their strategies into line with the Bioland standards. Once again, VOG Products benefits from its location in South Tyrol, the only province outside Germany to have a Bioland association.

The market is particularly receptive to pulps and fruit juices for children. “We are able to differentiate our products in order to satisfy even the toughest standards on organic foods for infants”, Mr Bristot adds.

VOG Products also benefits from members’ variety of products and forward-looking varietal strategy: “We can also offer an organic version of variety growers’ club apples such as Pink Lady. On request, we are even able to supply a single-variety product”.

Recently, demand for organic products has recorded constant growth, a trend of which VOG Products is well aware: although in the 2017/18 business year it processed only a little over 10,000 tonnes of organic produce, this volume rose to about 20,000 tonnes in 2018/19 and passed the 30,000 tonne mark in 2019/20. Output of organic apple pulp and juice more than doubled in the same period.

In the future, the added value of organic output will become more and more fundamental for VOG Products: in the years to 2023, the cultivated land used for organic production will be expanded by about 10% per annum.

VOG Products is an innovative company specialising in the processing of apples and other fruit. It is owned by 18 cooperatives in South Tyrol and Trentino and four producers’ organisations comprising over 13,000 family-run enterprises. Every year, VOG Products process more than 300,000 tonnes of raw goods to create healthy, safe products for the international market.