As a response to the Russian boycot and to support local growers as much as possible JUST has decided to focus even more on local fruit immediately. Daan Vetters, Business Deeveloper for JUST explains that they plan to mainly focus on Belgian and Dutch pears. "This is because it is expected that they will feel most of effects of boycot. Of course, it's logical that we're proud of the flavour of our local pears, as it's a fantastic harvest year. Besides pear, we are going to research what other local EU fruit varieties we can support through our JUST assortment."
More pears
"We also want to implement this adjustment in both our assortment of portion packaging and fruit salads, in consultation with our customer," he continues. "We have portion bags with pear slices, with grapes or blueberries, for on the go. We present seasonal fruit salads to catering, with pear as a standard ingredient. We want to extend this to processing pear into our standard fruit salads. This should be manageable with the current year round availability of local pears."
Double
JUST already offered a lot of local fruit. "We concluded that we could raise this. We want to at least double our pear volume with this initiative. On the 12th of August we tested a load of pears, together with Henri and Hilde Vandebroek, pear growers from Diepenbeek in Belgian Limburg. If the tests show that these pears meet our quality requirements, we will take it to our customers. If they agree, we will pass it as soon as possible. This grower starts the harvest next Monday so it's the ideal period to carry pears. If the consumers are enthusiastic, the pear volume will certainly increase."
As called
Henri and Hilde sum it up: "If we can't find any other sales possibilities over the next few months, we will have losses. JUST came like they were called. With our pear quality and JUST's in fresh processing, they will be delicious products. The partnership may lead to interesting new sales and it will certainly raise the awareness of the problem pear growers have at the moment."
After deciding to raise the volume, JUST took action immediately. "We are putting freshly cut local pears on our menu as a special suggestion at our JUST Fruit Bar at the Pukkelpop festival in Hasselt this week, the capital of Belgian Limburg, the heart of the Belgian pear cultivation."