Cherries have been an important activity for the Van der Zwaard family since 1934. Wilko's grandfather, Jan-Pieter van der Zwaard, started the activities and his father Ap continued them. Now Wilko has also become a real cherry specialist over the course of the years, with supply coming from all corners of the earth. "My son Alejandro has also recently indicated his interest in joining the business, so we will be continuing the tradition for a while," says the trader. "Alejandro will focus more on raising WilkoFruit to a higher level in terms of organisation. My heart is in sales and purchasing. My goal is to share our product knowledge with our customers, whether that's supermarkets, market traders or grocers, so that they can sell more."
All corners
"This season there is a real cherry shortage due to the weather conditions. This means good prices on the market," says Wilko. "The Spanish season ended two weeks earlier than expected due to the extreme weather. We will continue with Belgian and Dutch cherries for the next three weeks, and we have also had the first Canadian cherries flown in. We used to leave the Dutch fruit to others, but because we started supplying more and more to the supermarkets, they expect us to supply them from all corners."
"Specialism is becoming increasingly important. It's stone fruit for us. We have built up a good position with it in recent years in the Dutch retail. Around 40% of our volume now goes to the supermarkets. They want to be unburdened. We have a lot of product knowledge and show the supermarkets that they can sell considerably more with the right varieties."
Commercial department of WilkoFruit
"All the fruit that is packaged in Gaudias has to be of excellent quality - that makes the consumers come back. If you place lesser varieties on the shelves at the start of the season, you won't have repeat purchases in the weeks afterwards. The supermarkets we work with have never sold as much stone fruit and are very satisfied."
Spanish stone fruit until October
"We have also had a good season for the other stone fruit. During the Spanish season we work together with Espax from Lerida, the largest private grower in Spain with 100% own production. Every year this company renews 60 hectares of its area to bring the varieties with the best flavour, size and colours. With this they can define themselves on the market. We have been guaranteed stone fruit until the first week of October," says Wilko.
"We mainly receive nectarines, peaches and paraguayos. People are also always experimenting with platterinas, but the right varieties still haven't been developed. The plum season from Badajoz has also started. Thanks to the plentiful sun hours the sweetness is tremendous. I think it's great that the supermarkets are selling more and more stone fruit. This presents better and reduces decay," says Wilko.
New Extra Sweet & Healthy label.
"We also started the 'Extra Sweet & Healthy' line. The varieties that are extra sweet are brought to the attention of our customers' customers in this way. We start with Galia melons and watermelons and will soon be expanded with Piel de Sapo and stone fruit," concludes Wilko.
For more information:
Wilko van der Zwaard
Wilkofruit b.v
IABC 5212
4814 RA Breda
Tel: +31 76 5244460
wilko@wilkofruit.com
www.wilkofruit.com