VOG celebrates 70 years of history

24 August 1945 is the official date that marks the foundation of VOG, the Consortium of South Tyrolean Fruit Growers’ Cooperatives. Now Europe’s biggest apple marketing organisation and one of the South Tyrolean most important economic players, VOG was founded at the end of the Second World War in a climate of reconstruction and major economic difficulties.

Many markets had been lost and the South Tyrolean fruit growing industry was in desperate straits. It soon became clear that the task of leading its recovery was beyond the capacities of a single cooperative, so Josef Ungericht, Chairman of the CAFA Fruit Growing Cooperative, a strong personality with an ability to think outside the box, managed to persuade other cooperatives that they had to collaborate more closely if they were to overcome the new, complex economic situation together. This led to the birth of the VOG Consortium.

The 9 founder cooperatives were soon joined by many others. 1999 saw the merger with ESO, another Alto Adige growers’ organisation. As a result of the various mergers, in 2011 the number of cooperatives decreased from 33 to 16, one of them specialising in organically grown fruit. Nowadays VOG has 4,983 member growers, farming an area of about 10,700 hectares to produce about 650,000 tonnes per annum of high grade apples.

VOG and its members have had to adapt continually to a fast-changing market, with the introduction of new growing methods, an assortment of varieties tailored to consumers’ tastes, and new investments in fruit storage, processing and packaging facilities.

The logo is also changing to mark VOG’s 70th anniversary. As Sabine Oberhollenzer, VOG PR Manager, explained, the new logo features particularly high-impact graphics which add greater modernity to the Consortium’s image, while retaining continuity with the colour scheme and stylistic language of the past.

For more information:
Sabine Oberhollenzer
VOG
Tel +39-0471-256722
Email: sabine.oberhollenzer@vog.it