In an article on myfruit.it, Alessandro Franceschini takes stock of the role of berries in Italian fruit and vegetable departments: 'Berries are increasingly seen as a reference category, a 'differentiator', an example also for other fruit and vegetable references. Something significant has certainly happened in recent years'.
In the past, it seemed that berries were considered little more than a filler in the fruit and vegetable section, an undervalued and often neglected category. However, at Carrefour, according to Pier Luigi Lauriola, national fruit and vegetable manager of Carrefour Italy, this perception is completely wrong. Quite the contrary.
"Fruit and vegetables at Carrefour is distinguished by its strategy of developing differentiated categories in order to closely follow new consumer trends," said Lauriola.
Small fruits are a perfect embodiment of this strategy: "We have put a lot of effort into the broad product range, segmenting and developing specific brands. This approach can also be successfully replicated in many other product categories."
"The small fruit showcase is representative: on the high end we have developed size and origins. We find the partner, test it, consolidate the volumes and then work on a branded product. In the future we will work here on a branded product, we will develop the Selection brand, which we have already developed with imported strawberries."
Berries on the turnover podium
And the numerical results are proving that this strategy is correct: excluding the summer months, when seasonal fruit dominates the assortment and consumer preferences, during the other times of the year, small fruits, including strawberries, are the best-selling product family after citrus fruits in the Carrefour fruit and vegetable department.
"In the top 5 of annual fruit and vegetable sales is the strawberry from Basilicata Igp Terre d'Italia, variety Sabrosa: considering that it has a seasonality of no more than three months, this is a huge result," says Lauriola.
The national fruit and vegetable manager of Carrefour Italy continues: 'It is no coincidence that larger formats have been included: the consumption trend has changed so much that we are now working on larger formats also for the berries category. So at certain times we have one kilo and 500 gram packs in the assortment. No longer just the 125 gram and 250 gram:".
Read the full article on myfruit.it
