Italy: one million contacts for SMS-service in first week

Rome – In Italy a new SMS-service started for fresh produce consumers last week, to let consumers know the average prices of fruit and veg. The consumer’s answer has gone beyond any prevision, with one million SMS messages (434.879 sent and 743.822 received). The greatest interest is being recorded about tomatoes (155.633 SMS messages), followed by apples (154.560), oranges (73.156) and pears (51.944).

However there exists some controversy here too: according to some consumer associations, the Department of Agriculture has made an electoral manoeuvre with this SMS-service, because one million messages have produced no prices decreases in fresh produce yet. “It is very strange that this SMS-service will last juist until April”, say the consumer associations. The elections in Italy will in fact begin next April.

Publication date: 17 Feb 2006
Author: Rossella Gigli
Copyright: www.freshplaza.com