Sponsored Post – Innovation and development are top priorities at VOG Products. To satisfy customer wishes even more completely, the fruit processing company headquartered in Laives (South Tyrol/Italy) now has an aseptic filling plant for small containers.

The investment in new technologies and development of customer-specific solutions and products are part of VOG Products’ recipe for success. “We are able to guarantee the continuous availability of top-quality raw goods. That factor and our constant investment in new technologies, enables us to offer our customers a healthy, safe and high-quality products that is harmonised with their requirements and wishes,” explained Christoph Tappeiner, CEO of VOG Products.

The company established in 1967 now belongs to 4 producers’ organisations from South Tyrol and Trentino plus 18 cooperatives from South Tyrol with a total of around 10,000 members, most of which are small, family-managed enterprises.

“Constant exchange with our customers is very important to us. That is why we intensively explore the spectrum of product innovations that we can use to satisfy our customers’ specific needs even better or address new customer segments,” emphasised Tappeiner.

That principally applies to the company’s products, but includes packaging as well: VOG Products now has its own aseptic filling plant for small containers (“bag-in-box”). After all, bakeries, pastry shops, ice cream manufacturers, catering companies, cafeterias and many others often require small packages in order to produce desserts, ice cream or other products and dishes based on fruit.

After successfully completed tests and product validations, VOG Products launched the first filling processes in late summer of this year. Direct juice, concentrate, purée or chunky products can now be filled into small containers of 3 to 25 kg.

Alongside apples, VOG Products processes and refines pears, kiwi, peaches and apricots for filling. Depending on customer requirements, all products are available from integrated production or organic cultivation, monovarietal or combined.

On 13 November 2019 in Brussels the European Commission launched the new Market Observatory for Citrus fruit. On this occasion the European Commission requested Jose Antonio Garcia Fernandez, Director of Ailimpo and one of the initiators of the World Citrus Organization (WCO), to present the structure, the role and the objectives of this newly created platform for the global citrus category.

The European Commission welcomed this global initiative taken under the lead of Ailimpo, underlying the relevance of such a platform for the citrus sector to exchange information and debate on matters of common concern to enhance the citrus category.

Such a platform is fully aligned with the objectives of the European Market Observatory, which aim to provide market transparency and trends. Therefore, the work of the World Citrus Organization will be beneficial for the deliberation of the European Market Observatory for Citrus. Following their on-going collaboration with other similar international fruit platforms, the European Commission looks forward to having a fruitful cooperation with the new citrus structure once it is fully operational.

Freshfel Europe with its experts and the support of its Brussels based secretariat is eager to contribute to the success of the Market Observatories and the various sub sections such as citrus, peaches and nectarines, apples and pears, and tomatoes.

EU-28 production of peaches and nectarines in MY 2018/19 is estimated at 3.5 million MT, 12 percent lower compared to the previous campaign due to unfavorable weather conditions in most of the major producing countries.

Total cherry production in MY 2018/19 is projected to grow to 793,058 MT, a 30 percent increase compared with last season. This increase is supported by expected strong growth in Poland and Germany.

The value of EU-28 stone fruit exports continues to decline as a result of the 2014 Russian embargo imposed on agricultural and food products, including stone fruit, from the European Union. During MY 2017/18, EU imports of U.S. cherries increased significantly, valued at $ 9.4 million, and reinstated the United States as the fourth largest non-EU supplier of cherries. …

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European producers, emerging Mediterranean countries and large-scale retailers will meet to discuss one of the top fruit and vegetable products of the summer

With its production of peaches and nectarines of approximately 1,360,000 tonnes, Italy is now a leading European producer in the sector along with Spain. Consequently, a convention on peaches and nectarines will be held on the occasion of the 35th edition of Macfrut, to be held in Rimini from 9 to 11 May, promoted by the Macfrut trade fair and CSO Italy. On 9 May, the opening day of Macfrut, the European production forecasts for 2018 will be presented at a meeting with experts in the sector from leading producer countries in Europe – first and foremost Italy, Spain and Greece – and from emerging countries in the Mediterranean basin, with the participation of European large-scale retailers.

According to the data collected by CSO Italy, if we take a look at European production from 2000 to the present day, especially in the years marked by major crises in the industry, such as in the 2004-2005 period, it is evident that the production of peaches, clingstone peaches and nectarines in Europe had reached 4 million tonnes. Later, the European supply averaged around 3.6 million tonnes, with lows of 3.4 million tonnes, such as in 2016. As far as the Italian supply is concerned, the production of peaches for fresh consumption was + 10 % compared to 2016, at approximately 590,000 tonnes, whereas clingstone peaches showed + 24 % at almost 85,000 tonnes and +5 % was recorded for nectarines at about 690,000 tonnes. Following the trend of the other major producing countries in Europe, production in Spain increased by 9 %, France showed + 3 %, whereas Greece recorded a high percentage increase of + 53 % compared to its particularly poor production in 2016. In all major European countries, the expected supply for 2017 exceeded the previous year’s production by 16 %.

This year, for the first time since 2007, the production of peaches, nectarines and clingstone peaches reached 3.9 million tonnes, of which peaches and nectarines alone were equal to 3 million tonnes against 2.9 million tonnes in previous years. Spain played a major role in this rise: after producing a maximum capacity of about 1.2 million tonnes, it is now capable of producing 1.5 million tonnes. In fact, this significant increase is continuing, especially for doughnut peaches, which account for 50 % of total production in Spain. By contrast, in Italy the supply has dropped from 1.7 million tonnes to about 1.3 million tonnes due to the widespread removal of plants over the years, mainly in northern regions.
This is the issue at the heart of the recent peach crisis that has affected all of Europe.

Along with the increase in production in Europe, which leads to an imbalance between supply and demand, in the years when production is approaching its full potential, other factors are contributing to the crisis in this market: major unbundling of supply, high production costs, new competitors entering the market, competitive new products on the market and the ongoing Russian embargo. Last but not least, the economic problems linked to climate change, which for products such as peaches and nectarines – not intended to have a long shelf life – can significantly affect market trends.

All these themes will be discussed at the convention to be held at the Macfrut event, which will focus on current production trends in 2018. The availability of forecast data prior to harvesting is essential to peach production so that any necessary corrective measures can then be implemented.